J-172
by kokob5
Summary: Captured because of an AI's mistake, Jaune at the young age of six is conscripted into the UNSC's Orion project, to become one of humanities strongest defenders...A spartan.
1. Mistaken Conscript

**Location: Unknown planet (presumed to be Harvest)**

 **Objective: Capture subject C-172 for ORION Project.**

''Are you sure this is the place? Harvest doesn't look this…green.'' An Oni marine asks, looking out of the single window of the Pelican with a raised brow, confused as to why his home planet was so green.

''Oh I'm sure the higher ups somehow sent us to a different planet.'' Another replies sarcastically to the first causing the others to laugh.

''Be quiet! We're making touch down in T-minus one minute.'' The pilot shouts back, seeing they were approaching the beacon of C-172's home.

''Odd, the beacons off.'' The pilot mutters, seeing that the lone house surrounded by a wall was seventy meters away from the mission beacon that was located on an empty patch of land.

Dismissing it as a minor mistake the pilot lowers the pelican to the ground and opens the hatch to the troops, giving them the green light to capture C-172.

''Status report?'' A voice crackles to life causing the pilot to jump in surprise before she cleared her throat.

''Troops are making the transfer, however the mission beacon was roughly seventy meters of the targets house and one of the marines made a comment about how the place is too green to be harvest.'' The pilot explains causing the voice on the other side to hum in thought.

''Continue with the mission, we're in too deep to pull out now.'' The other voice says before cutting the coms.

''I have a bad feeling that somethings wrong here.'' The pilot sighs, looking out at the house to see the marines walking out with a bag in hand, no doubt containing the child to be used in some experiment. She didn't like they way they were doing this but it's what she signed up for when she joined ONI.

''Objective complete, all soldiers accounted for, package is in our hands!'' The marine holding the sleeping child shouts in a hushed tone prompting the pilot to close the hatch and lift off, hastily taking the black painted pelican away from the home seeing the lights turning on.

''That was a fuckin close one, the fucking kids dad woke up when we nabbed the kid.'' A marine laughs out nervously, remembering seeing the man burst into the room with a large axe in hand just as they escaped through the window.

''Why the fuck was that nut holding an axe? And why the fuck was it on fire?!'' Another explains, shocked remembering the axe catching fire when they man saw them as they made there way back to the pelican.

''I don't care but we got the kid at least.'' The last replies with a sigh, brushing some sweat off his face.

''Hurry up and get us home will you? I'm gonna need a drink after that one.'' The first marine asks, causing the two others to nod there agreement.

''Damn right.''

''You're paying.''

''damn it.''

The pilot sighed at the marines banter but decided against calling them out for a job well done, as they reached the small UNSC cruiser hidden behind a mountain her alarms went off prompting her to look at the radar to see a fast closing object on the ground.

''What the hell!? What's fast enough to follow a full speed pelican?'' The pilot shouts in shock, pulling the pelican up planning on going over the mountain rather than around to avoid whatever was following them.

''UNSC Romero we have an unknown hostile fast approaching us on the ground, get ready to get us out of here!'' The pilot shouts into the coms, followed soon by the mini-frigate slowly moving out of it's hiding place and positioning itself for a jump as soon as the pelican got on board.

''What the hell is that thing?!'' A marine shouts, his eyes on the black and white animal running into the clearing at a speed that would put most UNSC round vehicles to shame.

''I don't care what it is but I'm blowing it up!'' The pilot shouts, turning on the pelicans auto targeting mini-gun to take out the threat for her.

 _ **BRRRRRRRRRR!**_

''JESUS THAT THINGS STILL GOING!'' The pilot shouts in shock seeing the blip somehow moving faster than before, even after being peppered by a minigun.

'' _ONI operatives we've opened the top hanger bay for you, you'll have five seconds to land because three unknown cruisers are approaching our position at a rapid pace.''_ The UNSC Romero's commander explains.

''I told you this wasn't harvest! SHIT!'' One of the marines shouts before shouting in surprise as the pilot suddenly pulls up to avoid crashing into the Romero's.

''HOLD ON!'' The pilot shouts before suddenly dipping the pelican forwards and entering the hanger bay Shakely, hitting the wall on the way down before dropping onto the designated landing pad just in time for the Romero to fire off away from the planet, leaving the three cruisers in the dust.

''Jesus that was insane…'' The marine holding the child says, dropping the empty sleeping agent package onto the pelican floor.

''Damn right! We almost got left behind.'' The pilot sighs out, slouching in her seat in relief.

''And what the hell was that black thing? It tanked a bunch of shots from the mini-gun like it was nothing, hell the thing got even faster when we shot it.'' One of the marines asks.

''No idea but I'm relieved that's over.''

'' _We have a problem operatives, it looks like the ships dumb AI failed and warped us to a random planet, we collected the wrong target.''_ The commander of the Romero's explains.

''You have GOT to be kidding me…''

* * *

''Tell me…who is this boy?'' Doctor Catherine Halsey asks, looking at the blond haired child laying in one of her projects sleeping pods.

''The Romero's AI made a miscalculation and warped them to a random planet, due to the commander wanting to rush the operation he didn't realize they collected the wrong target until they'd retuned to UNSC space.'' The project assistant explains, also looking at the sleeping boy.

''A mistake? This is far more than that, our calculations suggest that less than half of the children will survive, and we only have Seventy-Five due to cuts and now we have a child who isn't even part of the program here.'' Doctor Halsey says, a slight edge on her tone as she spoke.

''I agree but the higher ups are ordering us to continue as planned.'' The assistant replies, handing the tablet to Halsey who takes it with a frown already knowing what was written on it. And as she suspected the ONI higher ups were telling her to continue as planned or the project would be cancelled.

''Very well…when he wakes up tell me immediately. I want to talk to him as soon as possible.'' Halsey says, handing the tablet back to the assistant before leaving.

''Will do ma'am.'' The assistant says.

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Operations: Project Orion/ Spartan II program.**

 **Time: 23:56**

When Jaune's eyes opened he was immediately confused, instead of his cream coloured bedroom walls he was greeted by a large room, an uncomfortable metal bed and inside a capsule of some kind.

''W-what?'' Jaune asks aloud, sitting up and looking around to see well over a hundred more of the same type of capsule as his own, filled with other children around his age that were all sleeping soundly besides one.

He looked at the boy in his capsule beside his own, dressed in a tank top and shorts, he had a very little hair, his head having been shaved. He looked off into space, unaware he was being watched.

''H-hey!'' Jaune calls getting the boy's attention.

''I didn't know anyone else was awake…'' The boy says, looking at Jaune with a small sheepish smile.

''Where are we?'' Jaune asks, moving up against the capsule's wall to get a little closer to the boy.

''I don't know, my names John by the way.'' The boy says, greeting himself after a moment.

''M-my names Jaune, Jaune Arc.'' Jaune stutters, giving a nervous smile to John in return.

''Huh? Jaune? It sounds a bit like John.'' Johns says, a small laugh escaping his lips at the coincidence of their names.

''Y-yeah.'' Jaune replies with a small laugh of his own.

Before the boys could speak to one another more they heard the sound of foot steps approaching, turning towards the sound the boys could see a blond middle-aged woman approaching with a tablet in hand while a taller man walked behind her, both wearing white uniforms that looked like an advanced lab coat.

''I've seen her before.'' John mutters aloud, remembering the women visiting him at school.

''Good evening S-117.'' Halsey greets before looking at Jaune. ''Tell me, what's your name?''

''J-Jaune Arc…'' Jaune answers. Gulping nervously when the assistant writes something down on his notepad.

''His project name has been updated to J-172.'' The assistant comments, ignored by Halsey who bends down to be eye level with Jaune.

''Tell me Jaune, where did you come from?'' Halsey asks, curious about where Jaune had come from.

''A-Atlas…'' Jaune answers, confusing Halsey, the only Atlas she knew of was the Epoch-Class heavy carrier known as the UNSC Atlas.

''Very interesting…'' Halsey mummers as she straightens up.

''Thank you for answering Jaune, that will be all for now.'' Halsey thanks as she leaves, her assistant nodding to Jaune before following his superior.

''Get some sleep you two, tomorrow will be filled with challenge.'' Halsey adds, stopping to take a look back at the two boys' before continuing and leaving.

Choosing to follow the doctor's advice both boy's lay down to sleep, preparing for the unknown that awaited them in their new life.

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Operations: Project Orion/ Spartan II program.**

 **Time: 05:00 hours.**

Jaune's blissful sleep was interrupted by a bright light being shined in his eyes followed by a shout by what he thought was a demon.

''GET THE HELL UP!''

Jaune immediately jumped up, shocked by the sudden shouting, looking around Jaune could see several other children, including John sitting up like himself in a similar state, he looked around more before his eyes landed on a man in a military form outfit with a military cap on his head.

''H-huh?'' Jaune manages in confusion, still drowsy from being woke up suddenly by the man.

''DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?! I SAID GET UP!'' The man shouts, louder this time, adding to this he kicked down a nearby table, scattering the paper and metal utensils onto the floor with a loud bang that woke the last of the children.

''Good! You're all awake! Now get out of your bed and stand in attention!'' The man adds loudly prompting the children to scramble out of there 'beds' to stand in front of them, all either slouched over slightly or leaning against their capsule.

''STAND UP STRIGHT!'' The man shouts, slamming a foot down into the ground rustling the children to stand up as straight as possible.

''Good! Now, my name is Senior Chief petty officer Franklin Mendez! But you will call me sir! Is that clear?!'' Petty officer Mendez shouts, slamming a foot into the floor prompting the children to course a tired 'Yes sir!'.

''Good! Now! Form up!'' Mendez orders, watching with disappointment as only a few of the kids lined up, even then the line was sloppy.

''Get in the line! And strengthen it up!'' Mendez orders, the rest of the children falling into the line.

Seeing the line was good enough Mendez nodded in satisfaction before turning around. ''Follow me! Any who fall behind will have lunch rights revoked!''

With that Mendez set off, the children walking behind in, fear of not eating them motivating them to follow the scary man.

Jaune knew that when the man first woke him that he'd be hurting later…

* * *

''Agh!'' Jaune shouted in pain, falling to the ground after being struck in the back by a baton welded by his drill sargent from hell. Mendez.

''What was that J-172? Have something to share that's so funny!?'' Mendez asks threateningly, standing over Jaune with his baton raised, ready to strike the boy again.

''N-nothing sir!'' Jaune replies, not finding the will to look his commanding officer in the face.

''LOOK AT ME WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU!'' Mendez shouts, slamming the baton into Jaune's gut causing him to gag, bile raising to his throat from the strike. Luckily for his dignity Jaune managed to swallow the bile back down, preventing him from vomiting his breakfast onto Mendez's boots.

''Nothing sir!'' Jaune repeats, looking Mendez in the eyes this time.

''Good! Now get up!'' Mendez orders, grabbing Jaune by his collar and dragging him into a standing position.

''Now then! If anyone so much as speaks when not spoken to you will be struck! And if you speak again you will be beaten! Is that understood!?'' Mendez asks, holding his baton high for the children to see.

''YES SIR!''

 **In a nearby observation room**

Doctor Halsey and her assistant stood watching the future super soldiers train, Mendez putting them through literal hell.

''J-172 is certainly surprising, despite not having been cited for the program he's keeping up with the rest, if anything he's better than some of the others'. A strike like that should have knocked the boy out.'' Halsey says aloud, writing her observations of the training in a notebook.

''Indeed and I can see that Mendez is living up to his name…'' The assistant observes, watching Mendez be-rate one of the female candidates for falling out of line, in the end back handing the girl to the ground for back talking him.

''Are they living up to your standards?'' The assistant adds on.

''They're just children but I have hope they will live up to my standards as the next step in humanities evolution.'' Halsey replies, placing her note pad down seeing her 'favourite', J-117, helping the odd one out, J-172, up from the ground after he'd fallen over during the obstacle course.

''By the looks of it they may become close friends.'' The assistant comments, remembering seeing J-172 and J-117 speaking earlier.

''They may, if they do it can work out for them, although it may sound silly, but companion-ship may help them through the program.'' Halsey states with a small smile seeing John was helping Jaune through the course despite knowing he would be punished for doing so.

''Small acts of humanity can be the difference between a victory or defeat.'' Halsey says to herself, ignoring the confused look from her assistant.

 **Back on the field.**

''Come on Jaune! You can do it!'' John motivates, leaning down and offering a hand to Jaune who was struggling to climb up wall that was tilted backwards to make it harder to climb.

''All…most!'' Jaune struggles out, covered in buckets of sweat as he pulled himself up the wall and flopped down onto the flat ground of the finish, letting his legs dangle over the edge.

''Come on!'' John says, pulling Jaune up to his feet and helping him walk over the finish line.

''T-thanks…'' Jaune huffs out, dropping onto his ass while panting heavily, feeling a little light headed from the intense work out.

''AGAIN!'' Mendez shouts, kicking Jaune in the back knocking the boy down.

''Hey wha!-'' John's attempt at a demand for Mendez's action's was silenced when he was kicked in the gut by said man.

''I said he's doing it again! This time alone!'' Mendez explains, watching with a snarl as Jaune shakenly got on his feet.

''I-it's okay John…you don't need to get hurt…over me.'' Jaune pants, a small smile on his face as he looked at John's worried look.

''Bu-'' John tries to stop Jaune but is stopped with he raises a hand.

''It's fine…I'll do it…'' Jaune says, looking up at Mendez with a glare, receiving an approving look from the man before he turned around.

''Good! Now the rest of you may have a fifteen-minute break until the next exercise!'' Mendez shouts as he walked away leaving the seventy-five trainees' alone.

''Why?'' John asks. Frowning as Jaune smiled at him.

''Because, I need to get…stronger.'' Jaune says, catching his breath before walking to the start of the obstacle course and setting off again, a look of determination on his face.

''He's really strong, I'd never have the heart to do that again…'' Someone says from behind John getting him to turn to see another boy, he looked at his service tag to see J-052 hammered into it. ''Names Jorge by the way.''

''Yeah…'' John sighs out, wiping some of the sweat from his brow, watching Jaune struggles over a jumping based exercise, almost falling in the process into the water below, an improvement from before where he'd fallen in on the first jump.

''Hm, he really is, he even stood up to Mendez…'' A female voice chimes in getting the attention of John and Jorge.

''H-hi.'' The girl adds shyly, waving at the two boy's who looked at her tag to see Cal-141 hammered into them.

''Yeah, I wouldn't like to stand up to him, you seen the way he kicked his ass…'' Jorge huffs out, holding back a laugh seeing Jaune trip over himself and eat the floor getting a series of ''Oooh''s from the group of trainees'.

''S-shut up!'' Jaune shouts, red faced from embarrassment and the exercise. In response a few trainees laughed at his misery while others smiled at the banter.

Finally after ten minutes Jaune was finally at the end, climbing up the wall again, struggling to do so, every part of him felt as if it was on fire, his body wanting to just lay down and rest but his determination pushed him on past his limit and with a final heave he pushed himself up over the edge.

And proceeded to vomit onto the floor.

''Eww…'' Cal-141 says, covering her nose from the fowl smell as it washed over her and some of the other trainees'.

''Yeah…I didn't know vomit could smell so bad…'' Jorge adds on, pinching his nose shut.

''Hey Jaune you okay?'' John asks, ignoring the smell to check if the other boy was okay.

''I…I'm fine…just give me a minute…'' Jaune huffs, rolling onto his back to catch his breath.

''WHAT'RE YOU LAYING THERE FOR J-172! GET PAST THAT FINISH LINE!'' Mendez shouts, his voice installing fear into the trainee's who immediately jumped to attention to save themselves from a beating.

''A-alright…'' Jaune manages, weakly standing himself up and stumbling over the finish line before falling back onto the ground to let himself rest.

''Good, congratulations trainees'! you've past your first test! Now form up!'' Mendez congratulates before stomping on the soon to be super soldier's joy by ordering them to get into line.

With the help of John, Jaune stood up and moved into the line and began to walk when Mendez began his march to the next part of the training.

''What do you think we'll be doing next?'' John whispers, glancing at Mendez to make sure he didn't hear.

''I don't…know.'' Jaune replied quietly.

''This is where you'll be learning! Your teacher will be the dumb AI Déjà, here you will learn many things, science, math, history and so on, you will be brought here after physical training!'' Mendez explains as the group walked into a large room with a single glass screen that was almost as tall as the room itself.

''Déjà, say hello.'' Mendez says.

''Good evening children.'' Déjà says, the AI activating and looking to the children who watched her in fascination.

''Woah…'' Jaune breathes out, looking at the hologram of the AI that resembled a Greek goddess in appearance.

''This is Déjà, your new teacher.'' Mendez says again. ''Now! Take a seat!''

With the moment of fascination over, the children quickly rushed for seats, Jaune and John sitting beside one another while Cal and Jorge sat nearby.

''As petty officer Franklin Mendez explained, I will be teaching you all about science, math, history and many other subjects that will help you in your future.'' Déjà explains, moving an image onto the screen showing a large of the UNSC logo.

''Let's begin with the history of the UNSC.''

While the other's listened on in interest in the history of the UNSC, Jaune was confused by the mix up, where he'd come from there was no United nations, hell he was sure that people from remnant hadn't even left the planet yet! but Déjà was explaining otherwise, explaining events of how the UNSC was formed and the wars they'd taken part in ever since it's formation after world war II to now, where it was a superpower that colonized thousands of planets in the galaxy.

''It's pretty cool isn't it.'' John says, giving Jaune a jab pulling him from his thoughts.

''Y-yeah, it is.'' Jaune replies sheepishly, not having been paying attention to the lecture and learning nothing from it.

''Is that so J-172?'' Déjà asks, appearing in front of Jaune by using his interactive desk to project herself.

''Y-yeah, the history of the UNSC's intresting…'' Jaune lies, scratching the back of his head as the AI looked at him emotionalessly.

''Then please name the year the United nations was formed.'' Déjà asks dropping Jaune into a hard to escape pit.

''Uh…It was formed in…'' Jaune starts, slowly answering the question to buy time to get the answer or to guess.

''The United nations formed in…'' Jaune says, glancing at Cal who was mouthing something to him.

''Nineteen…fourty…five?'' Jaune answers, reading the mouthed words from Cal.

''Correct.'' Déjà says before returning to the front of the class. ''But please do reframe from helping J-172 in the future Cal-141.''

Seeing he was busted Jaune drops his head into the desk while Cal blushed at being caught, all the while John and Jorge held back laughter at the fail.

''Now then, let's get back to class, please pay attention this time J-172.'' Déjà says before getting back to the class, explain the forming of the United Earth Government During the periods of 2170-2204.

''Yes ma'am.'' Jaune mutters into the table before lifting his head up, paying attention this time.

''With that class is finished, please follow Petty officer Franklin Mendez to the food quarter.'' Déjà says, concluding the two-hour long class on the basics of the history of the UNSC.

''Ah-ha…'brief history'.'' Jaune says flatly, watching the screen go blank and Déjà vanished leaving them with Mendez who walked into the room several minutes before the class ended.

''Form up!'' Mendez shouts, watching as the children formed a line before he turned and marched out of the room. The walk around the base lasted three minutes before the petty officer opened the doors to the cafeteria which was a large single room with well over forty steel tables dotting the room, all which had six chairs at each one.

''Pick a table, anyone caught pushing will not be served their meal!'' Mendez orders.

Jaune went for the closest table, hoping that John, Jorge or Cal would get to him but was disheartened to find the other seats filled before the three of them could even get close, deciding not to risk getting a beating or missing his food Jaune stays put.

''Good!, now leave your tag at the table and form a line behind me!'' Mendez orders. The young soldiers do as they're told, leaving there service tags at the table and forming a line behind Mendez who after seeing everyone was lined up moves to the side.

''Now, pick up a tray, plate, knife and fork and then make your way to the chefs for your food, any pushing or shoving will result in the revoking of food rights for the day!'' Mendez explains, keeping a critical eye out for anyone pushing or shoving as the children slowly moved forwards one at a time to get their food which consisted of a standard UNSC MRE and half full glass of water.

After the last child grabbed their food Mendez picks up a MRE and turns to the group.

''Now, I will teach you how to properly use your standard MRE also known as the Meal Ready to Eat.'' Mendez says before going into detail on how to properly unpack and prepare the food inside, all the while everyone watched and copied his movements, when the demonstration was finally finished Mendez nodded seeing everyone had successfully prepared there MRE.

''Now eat up! This will be the only meal until supper which will be at 12:00 hours!'' Mendez shouts.

And on que the group tucked in, not minding that the food didn't taste great, simply wishing to sate their hunger which had plagued them since the training course finished almost two hours before.

Much to Jaune's displeasure he'd run out of food sooner than he'd have liked, having wolfed it down like everyone else the moment they'd been aloud to, picking up his glass of water he sunk it in one go.

''That ended a little faster than I'd have hoped.'' The girl beside Jaune says getting his attention. He noticed her tag read D-023

''I know, I'm still hungry.'' Jaune replies causing her to huff out a laugh.

''I'm pretty sure everyone is.'' D-023 says sadly, looking at the other's seeing there slightly disappointed faces.

''Well we get more at midnight at least.'' The boy on Jaune's left adds on, having a more optimistic outlook on the situation. He looked at his tag to see it read J-029

''Well you are right but that's over half the day away.'' Jaune mutters bitterly, resting head on his hands.

''J-172 REMOVE YOUR ELBOWS FROM THE TABLE!'' Mendez shouts from behind the boy, he jumped in fright at the shout from the devil and hastily removed his elbows from the table.

''You really like to get in trouble huh?'' The boy opposite Jaune says quietly when Mendez walks away. His tag read V-101

''I think he's out to get me.'' Jaune replies with a hint of dread in his tone.

''Well he is the only one Sir singles out to shout at.'' D-023 says, holding back a laugh seeing Jaune drop his head onto the desk with a dull 'THUD' at the contact between metal and flesh.

''So far.'' Jaune adds hopefully but by he flat tone he'd used it was obvious he didn't believe it.

''Meal time is over! All trainees stand at attention!'' Mendez suddenly shouts as the door to the cafeteria opens.

In walked Doctor Halsey, her assistant a few steps behind. Walking to Mendez's side Halsey clears her throat before speaking.

''Good evening children, for those that do not know me my name is Catherine Halsey, I oversee this project.'' Halsey greets, her eyes sweeping over the seventy-five candidates.

''This project will turn you into super soldiers, the next step in humanities evolution.'' Halsey continues.

''Super soldiers?'' D-023 whispers, looking between Jaune and V-101.

''Sounds kind of cool.'' V-101 admits.

Jaune nodded in agreement, the image of a huntsmen appearing in his mind getting him a little hyped.

''You will be called Spartans.'' Halsey interrupts, throwing up an image of the renamed Orion project on her tablet and projecting it onto a screen in the room.

''Here you will be trained, taught and finally deployed, the duration of your training will last eight years, after this period those who remain will progress into the next stage.'' Halsey explains. An image of prototyped power armour appearing on the screen.

''Of course, the design will change over time but I'm sure it won't be anything to worry about.'' Halsey explains, returning the image to her tablet before addressing the group.

''Now then, that's all I wished to say for now, I'll speak to you all later after your training.'' With that Halsey and her assistant left, leaving the room in silence. A tense silence as Mendez looked over the group, a thoughtful look on his face before he nodded.

''All trainees form up! We'll be doing hand to hand combat next!''

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Operations: Project Orion/ Spartan II program.**

 **Time: 09:54 hours.**

''Try harder J-172!'' Mendez shouts, kicking the blond-haired boy away from him. Seeing Jaune standing back up and running at him again Mendez huffed at his tenacity before moving to the side of Jaune's punch and kneeing him in the gut, finally knocking the boy down for good.

''One minute and twenty-four seconds. Not bad J-173.'' Mendez praises, picking the boy off the ground allowing him to walk over to the bench with the ten other's who'd got their asses kicked already.

''Ha…why did you keep getting up? I just stayed down after the first two knock downs.'' Jorge asks, moving over to let Jaune sit on the bench beside him.

''…I didn't think of that…'' Jaune huffs out, rubbing his still aching stomach.

''You really need to use your head more…ow…'' One of the other trainee's known as D-042 says, holding the side of his face that was swollen from the knock out punch he'd gotten from Mendez.

''Didn't you try to headbutt Mendez so he punched you?'' Jaune asks causing D-042 to huff and look away.

''Next!'' Mendez shouts, throwing D-023 out of the ring with ease.

''I'll go.'' John says, standing up and making his way into the ring.

''Three.''

''Two.''

''One.''

''GO!'' Mendez shouts, watching John run towards him, slowly down partly as he reached the man. Seeing what John was going to do, Mendez closed his legs and punted John as he slid, kicking the boy in the face. Using the opening from stunning the boy Mendez knelt down and punched John in the gut causing him to gag.

''Don't be so transparent about your actions, it can cost you your life!'' Mendez be-rates, picking John off the ground and pushing him towards the beaten group.

''Next!''

There was one thing Jaune knew about his future from this point out.

 **THUD**

''NEXT!''

It was going to hurt…


	2. Only happy little mistakes

**UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Operations: Spartan II program.**

 **Year: 2519**

 **Time: 10:00pm**

The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed in the room, the flashy slap causing the on lookers to flinch as the blond-haired receiver of the devastating punch fell to the floor, stunned by the blow. With no time to recover the attacker pounced on the boy and delivered another punch, the sound of breaking bone following after ending the fight.

''Enough! The winner of the match is J-005!'' Mendez shouts, lifting the boys hand into the air, though he won the boy still had a bloody nose and a swollen eye but was in fair better shape than his opponent.

''J-172, you need to work more on your offence, you can't keep blocking every attack, at the vest least try to evade some hits, and attack less on the defensive side, it leaves you beaten by the five minute mark, you may be a tough bastard despite your age but that means nothing if all you do is act like a punching bag for your enemy.'' Mendez explains as Jaune sits up, holding his broken nose.

''Now go to the med bay and get that nose fixed or I'll make you lick the blood up!'' Mendez adds on, slamming a foot into the ground rousing the boy into hastily making his way out of the training room, knowing full well Mendez would make him do it, having witnessed with the seventy-three others as Mendez forced G-093 to lick up her blood after kicking her opponent after the match was called.

He shivered as the images of the memory flashed in his mind.

When he reached the med bay he was given a glance of himself in the mirror, he'd grown a lot in the two years he'd been training with the others under Mendez, he was more muscular and growing at a rapid rate, currently standing as the tallest of all the trainees, this had been used against him many times as some of the more competitive trainee's always tried to pick a fight with him for being the biggest.

It's funny to think that once he'd been a boy who wanted desperately to be a huntsman, even after his father had told him otherwise and that he wasn't ready, was now this, it's a shock what the right kind of training can do to a person, even to the likes of him.

''Oh. J-172, back so soon?'' The familiar voice of the medical researcher asked, noticing the boy walk into his office holding his nose, the blood leaking through his fingers, rather than speak and risk spitting blood everywhere he nodded causing the researcher to sigh.

''Broken nose this time, well It's not a full break luckily so it should heal within a day but your nose might end up a bit crooked if you don't take care of it properly.'' The researcher explains, moving Jaune's hand out of the way and inspecting the nose, giving it a light tug causing the boy to his in pain.

''Bite down on your arm, this might hurt!'' The researcher says, not giving time for the boy to bite down on his arm before he put the nose back into place, Jaune like most people cried out in pain, instinctually pushing away from the researcher and cupping his nose.

''What the hell!?'' Jaune shouts, looking at the researcher who was holding back a laugh at Jaune's expense.

''Fuck you bright.'' Jaune mumbles, walking out of the room leaving the researcher to laugh.

 _At least my nose if fixed…_

 **Back with Researcher Bright.**

''Mr. Bright, I'd prefer you didn't mess with the children like that.'' Halsey comments, walking into the room with a sigh, having witnessed what had just happened.

''Alright, alright, I'll be sure to give him a second to bite down next time.'' Bright chuckles, turning around to face the doctor.

''So, Doctor Halsey, how is the program going? Any stand outs yet?'' Bright asks curiously, his previous giddiness from the event before lost, replaced with a professional tone and posture.

''A few, as expected J-117 and K-051 have proven to be the top trainee's, with K-087, S-034 and S-172 coming in just after them, in that order.'' Halsey explains.

''There certainly is something odd about J-172, despite being a normal kid he's somehow able to keep up and even surprise most of the other trainee's, all of those kids are considered geniuses for there age and him, an accidental pick up is better than most of 'em.'' Bright says, pulling J-172's file from his desk and laying it out in front of Halsey.

''Though we have made some progress in analysing J-172 and why he's such an odd one out but nothing on where he came from as of yet.'' Bright explains, opening the fill to show an X-ray of J-172.

''As explained J-172's bone structure is slightly different than your average humans, the bones are denser and the kids body is a lot tougher than the average persons, he has over five times the hair growth of the average male, we predict that by the time he hits fifteen he'll be six foot and three inches tall but he may be taller, Jaune also seems to be developing at a rapid rate and that's probably why he's keeping up with the other trainees, as you can see here all damage to his body heals quicker as well, almost double the rate of others.'' Bright explains to Halsey, showing her the document before finally his finger landed on an image of Jaune with a semi-deep cut on his arm and another image taken the same day showing the cut to be gone, leaving a nearly invisible scar.

''Thank you, researcher Bright, please keep looking into J-172's origin.'' Halsey says, taking the document and shoving it under her arm.

''No problem ma'am.''

 **Back with Jaune.**

''Trainee J-172 reporting in!'' Jaune shouts, slamming his feet together and saluting as the door to the training room opens.

''Fall in trainee.'' Mendez says dismissively prompting Jaune to fall into the third line.

''That didn't take long…'' L-011 mutters, elbowing Jaune lightly to get his attention.

''Yeah…bright set it back into place without warning me.'' Jaune whispers back, tuning into Mendez as he monologed about the importance of hand to hand combat training and that a good soldier never relied completely on his gun to save his life.

''Harsh, then again J-005 did kick your ass.'' L-011 whispers, a small smirk on his lips.

''Yeah he did.'' Jaune mumbles, recalling the fight.

''You should really stand up for yourself more, throw a few punches back instead of just take hits all the time, you're more than competent to kick ass J.'' L-011 explains, patting Jaune on the back when Mendez wasn't paying attention.

''I do fight properly.'' Jaune rebuttals but gets ignored by the fellow trainee. Taking the hint that their conversation was over Jaune tunes fully into Mendez speaking.

''And that kids, is why soldiers always rely on hand to hand.'' Mendez finishes, facing the trainee's and looking them over.

''That concludes training for today! All trainee's report to cafeteria and you know the drill from there!'' Mendez orders

'' **Yes sir!''**

Jaune lead the third group to the cafeteria, all of them walking in perfect sync, the watchful eyes of Mendez brushing over the three groups, watching vigilantly for anyone stepping out of line, speaking without permission or causing problems in general.

The trainees took there seats, the same ones from when they had first sat in the room two years ago.

''Hey Jaune, how's your face?'' Jorge asks, punching Jaune playfully on the shoulder as he takes his seat by Jaune's side.

''I'm fine, my nose isn't crooked is it?'' Jaune asks, looking at Jaune who hums in thought for a moment, looking at Jaune's nose.

''Totally is.''

''What?!''

''Jorge don't worry him like that! Don't worry Jaune, your nose is fine.'' Cal says, calming Jaune down before he got Mendez's attention.

''Don't worry Cal, I'm just teasing him.'' Jorge says, waving a hand at Jaune who'd raised a fist in a threatening manner.

''You lot are as lively as ever.'' Daisy-023 comments, watching Jorge and Jaune butting heads at Jorge's idea of a 'joke.

''Can't believe I'm stuck at the table with them…'' Victor-101 mumbles bitterly, having fallen out with the others due to his more reserved nature.

''Don't be so harsh Victor.'' Roma-143 hisses, slapping the boy on the shoulder.

''Whatever…'' Victor mumbles.

''Table three, quiet down or I'll take these back.'' Mendez says, placing down a tray of MRE's for the six trainees at the table who immediately shut up an grabbed there MRE and began to prepare it silently.

''Good now shut up and eat.'' Mendez says before walking away.

''I swear you guys are going to get us beat one of these days.'' Musa-096 says seriously, looking between Mendez and then to Jaune and Jorge.

''Er, sorry.'' Jaune apologizes, scratching the back of his head sheepishly while Jorge just shrugged it off.

''Well eat up before your food gets cold.'' Cal says, trying to calm the group of miss-matched trainee's from attacking each other, using her cute nature to her advantage.

* * *

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Operations: Spartan II program.**

 **Year: 2520**

 **Time: 05:00pm**

Everything was going on as normal, the trainee's in combat training with their instructors, twenty instructors had been brought in from all around UNSC controlled space to train the super soldiers, only the best of the best were brought in.

However not even the best of the best can manage if they underestimate there opponent, a fatal mistake for one trainer who'd gotten a little too cocky with his sparing partner.

 **SNAP**

The sound quieted the room, all movement stopped as everyone looked to the source of the sound to see one of the trainee's standing over a trainer who lay motionlessly on the floor, not even his chest was moving.

It was apparent that the man was dead.

''Holy shit she just killed him!'' A marine combat instructor nearby shouts in shock, looking at the dead combat instructor who'd been thrown into the ground by the girl, severing two of his cervical Vertebrae in the process, leading to the man's instant death.

''I…I…'' Carris tried to speak but could only stutter, too shocked that she'd just ended one of her instructor's life's. She couldn't muster words and she did the only thing her body could.

She ran.

Before even Mendez could react Carris was gone.

''Damn it someone get her, now!'' Mendez shouts, running out of the room after the trainee, three of the instructors following soon after brandishing stun batons while the remaining seventeen prevented the other trainee's from leaving.

But through all the chao Jaune had managed to slip out, planning on finding Carris first to prevent any harm coming to his fellow trainee.

''Come on Jaune, if you accidently killed someone where would you hide?'' Jaune asks himself, running through the base trying to find where Carris would be hiding, he'd searched high and low for the girl but found no luck in finding her, only when Jaune heard a sniffing did he finally stop and see he was near the barracks.

 _Of course…_

''Hey…Carris?'' Jaune asks, peaking his head around the corner to see the black haired girl curled into a ball outside the barracks, muttering to herself while the tears poured out of her eyes.

''Carris…'' Jaune calls, louder this time getting the girls attention, he saw her eyes widen in fear when she spotted him.

''W-wait it's okay Carris I'm not going to do anything.'' Jaune rushes out, calming the girl down.

''O-oh…'' Carris hiccups, sliding back down into her fetal position.

''Look…Carris…what happened…it was an accident, everyone, Mendez could see that.'' Jaune says, slowly making his way towards the moping girl.

''S-so? I…I still killed him!'' Carris shouts, her red puffy eye's making it hard for Jaune to see she was angry.

''And it was an accident! They happen, you had no control over the situation.'' Jaune counters, coming to a stop in front of Carris who was now standing up, only reaching Jaune's chin in height.

''But that doesn't matter! He's dead because of me!'' Carris shouts, pushing Jaune away who stumbles to a stop.

''Car-''

''That's enough J-172.'' Mendez interrupts, prompting Jaune to turn to see the man standing with a frown.

''S-sir.'' Jaune stutters, putting himself into proper form and saluting.

''At ease.'' Mendez says dismissively as he walked past Jaune and up to the other trainee.

Seeing Mendez raise his hand Carris looked away, preparing to be hit only to blink feeling a hand being placed on her shoulder.

''C-137 look at me.'' Mendez says, an unusual level of softness in his tone as he addressed the girl, having no other choice Carris does as she says to see the drill Sargent from hell giving her a small, almost invisible, smile.

''What J-172 said is true, what happened back there wasn't your fault, the situation was out of your control.'' Mendez explains. ''Although it is sad that we lost a man, I won't punish a child for an accident.''

''I…didn't expect that…'' Jaune mutters to himself, a little to loudly as seen when Mendez glared back at him with the power of a thousand suns.

''What was that J-172, you said something about not wanting food for the week?'' Mendez asks, his voice piercing Jaune like an icy storm.

''N-nothing sir!'' Jaune apologizes, throwing himself back into form and saluting.

''That's what I thought.'' Mendez huffs out before turning his attention back to Carris.

''Let's go, Doctor Halsey will want to speak to you about this incident.'' Mendez says, leading Carris away and leaving Jaune alone outside the barracks.

''And get your ass back to the training room J-172! Trainings already resumed!''

''Yes sir!''

To say he'd run back to the training room with haste would be an understatement.

Before entering Jaune noticed that the body was already gone, most likely removed due to safety and moral based reasons.

''Jaune! Is Carris okay?'' Jorge asks, noticing Jaune walk into the training room, getting the blond boys attention prompting him to walk over.

''Yeah she's fine, Mendez was oddly…humane about it.'' Jaune says, pausing to find a word to describe Mendez's behaviour.

''Humane? You mean he isn't a soulless demon from hell?'' Jorge asks rousing a laugh from the two trainees at the joke.

''Yeah, he isn't a demon from hell.'' Jaune finishes, giving Jorge a light sock on the arm.

''J-172 get your ass up here, you still haven't fought today.'' One of the instructor's orders.

''Right away sir!''

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Operations: Spartan II program.**

 **Year: 2522**

 **Time: 10:33am**

''Today class we will be learning about the SOEIV pods.'' Deja says, turning to the large screen in the centre of the room showing the SOEIV pods.

''These are SOEIV pods, recently implemented into the UNSC's arsenal, although they have been around since 2461 the UNSC has only recently gotten approval to use them for military operations by the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers division of the UNSC.'' Deja explains, turning the image of the SOEIV pod for the students to see it's lay out.

''The SOEIV pods were ordinally made for luxury activities however due to there large size and the fact they were rather unsightly that plan failed leaving the SOEIV pods with rare use until recently when the company that makes them refurbished them for military activities and sold the rights to the SOEIV pods to the UNSC navy.'' Deja drones on.

' _Talk about a bore…'_ Jaune says to himself, trying to keep his eyes open as Deja goes into detail about how the SOEIV pods are used, the only thing he found interesting about the lecture was the fact they could be dropped from low orbit with relatively good accuracy. Next, they were shown the SOEIV's accuracy in a recorded demo showing the SOEIV pod being dropped from low orbit and landing only three meters off its original target.

''Pretty cool.'' Jorge comments, imagining dropping from a SOEIV onto the battlefield.

''Yeah it is…cool…but the lessons so boring.'' Jaune replies quietly, lightly slapping himself on the face to keep his eyes open.

''Yeah tell me about it, I can barely keep myself awake…'' John mumbles, sending a glance at Jaune and Jorge while paying attention of Deja's lecture. ''Hopefully we'll actually be able to do some practical learning with them.''

''That does sound fun.'' Jaune mummers back.

''Please pay attention to the lesson J-172.'' Deja calls from the front of the class, immediately Jaune sat up straight.

''Sorry.''

''Thank you.''

With that the lesson continued as normal, Deja moving from topic to topic for the class to take in all in rapid succession, not staying on a single subject for more than thirty minutes. Honestly the trainees were used to this rapid learning by now. At first, they had trouble keeping up, but a few years of the same routine had trained them to take in the information being thrown at them with ease, taking mental notes with every word coming out of there teachers mouth.

''That concludes the class students, please make your way to the on-site gun range. in an orderly fashion.'' Deja finishes, dismissing the class with a smile before deactivating her form leaving the trainees to get up and make their way to the gun-range.

''So, they're finally going to teach us to shoot properly?'' Jorge asks himself aloud.

Dispite knowing the question wasn't meant for him Jaune answers anyway. ''Looks like it, maybe this is that 'practical' break you were looking for?''

''Damn right, I'll be sure not to show you up to much.'' Jorge says with a grin, Jaune on the other hand just huffed out a laugh.

''You two should take your training more seriously you know.'' A voice says from behind Jaune, turning his head back Jaune raised a brow seeing Alice-130 behind him with a cross look on her face.

''We do though, we take it as seriously as anyone else.'' Jaune replies, holding back the annoyance in his tone.

''Really? Then why do you have over twenty-seven records of disrupting Deja's lessons with your constant small chat with Jorge-052?'' Alice asks, shooting down Jaune's argument.

''What's it mean to you anyway Alice? I'd prefer to leave this as a human not some robot.'' Jaune shoots back.

''Nothing to me, it's just annoying that we need to pause our training because of you.'' Alice replies coolly.

''If it means nothing then mind your own business.'' Jaune says before looking back ahead.

''That's a bit hard to do with your habits.'' Another voice chimes in, this one male.

''Agreed.'' A second male voice adds in his agreement.

''Joy, now all 'red team' is out to get me.'' Jaune sighs out, looking back at the two other's who were on either side of Alice. Douglas-042 and Jerome-092.

''What can we say? We take our training seriously.'' Douglas admits proudly.

''Indeed you do D-042, however I don't see how ganging up on J-172 is going to contribute to that.'' Mendez says suddenly, stopping the moving trainee's in their tracks.

'' **Sir!''** The group of seventy-five call out collectively, dropping into proper form for their superior officer.

''Is there a reason you four are causing such a racket?'' Mendez asks, looking down at the four trouble makers with a cold eye.

''Sir! We were simply voicing our displeasure of J-172's reluctance to take his training seriously!'' Alice replies stiffly.

''Is that so?'' Mendez asks, receiving a nod from the three other trainees'.

''If you have any displeasures with one another, solve it on the mats! Not in the halls!'' Mendez chastises, shouting at the group of four who collectively gulp preparing for their punishment.

''As for your punishment, 'Red team' and J-172 will part take in a training exercise, a three on one fight! Loosing team has their meal rights revoked for the day.'' Mendez shouts, leaving no room for argument.

''Now get your asses to the firing range!'' Mendez adds on, prompting the trainee's to hurry to their next training exercise in silence, the watchful eyes of their commanding officer sweeping over them every step of the way.

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Operations: Spartan II program.**

 **Year: 2522**

 **Time: 12:12pm**

''Hold your gun right damn it, J-172!'' Mendez orders, straightening out Jaune's shooting stance for him. ''Do not hold the damn thing like it's just a block of metal! It's a fire arm that could very well kill someone if miss-handled!''

''Sorry sir!'' Jaune replies, ignoring the stifled giggles of the trainee's watching him being be-rated by Mendez for the third time since picking his gun up. He hadn't even fired it yet!

''Now take a deep breath, focus on the target, put some pressure onto your shoulder to prepare for kick and then pull the trigger when you're positive you're ready.'' Mendez mentors, guiding Jaune through the steps to his first shot with a pistol, it wasn't anything spectacular, a simple 9mm pistol commonly used by police forces on various planets.

 **BANG!**

''Not a bad shot J-172, there may be hope for you yet.'' Mendez praises, looking with an approving gaze at the bullet hole in the target's outer ring. Not a bad shot for a first time, especially for someone his age.

''Really?'' Jaune asks, turning to Mendez who immediately snatches the pistol out of his hands and slams it onto the table in front of them.

''WHAT THE HELL DID I TELL YOU ABOUT FIRE ARM SAFETY?!'' Mendez roars furiously, looking at the trainee with a look of rage on his face.

''N-NOT TO POINT THE GUN AT A NON-TARGET SIR!'' Jaune stutters out, realizing his mistake.

''DAMN RIGHT! NOW JOIN THE BACK OF THE LINE BEFORE I KICK THAT RULE INTO YOUR THICK SKULL!'' Mendez shouts, pointing at the line while glaring daggers into the boy's back as he practically ran to the back of the line red faced from embarrassment.

''NEXT! AND IF YOU DO THE SAME THING AS THAT RETARD I SWEAR I WILL BEAT YOU WITH THE GUN YOU SHOT FROM!'' Mendez shouts with a fury of an angry god.

''YES SIR!'' The trainee's reply instinctually.

''Way to go J-172.'' Li-008 mummers bitterly, annoyed he and his friend group were being punished for his fuck up.

''Sorry…it sort of slipped my mind…'' Jaune replies softly, his eyes trained on the floor feeling many more glaring their displeasure at him.

''Then don't let it, pay attention in class more, listen when someone's speaking to you about training. This isn't a joke you know. One day we're going to be fighting when the UNSC need us most and you better be prepared for it or I and many others will be there to shoot you when you become a liability.'' Li adds, giving Jaune a small lecture on there importance to the UNSC.

''Yeah…I'll be sure to do it.'' Jaune whispers with a light nod, Li's words hitting him deeper than any of Deja's many lectures.

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Operations: Spartan II program.**

 **Year: 2522**

 **Time: 15:07pm**

''J-172, 'Red team' step forwards into the middle of the ring.'' Mendez orders. Seeing as they couldn't object to what was to come the four trainees moved into the ring, 'red team' walking with a victorious swagger while Jaune was more nervous with his movements.

''J-172 and 'red team' will part-take in a special training exercise, they will demonstrate hand to hand combat when you are outnumbered in a three Vs. one scenario.'' Mendez explains, ordering Jaune to one side of the ring and 'red team' to the other side.

Mendez went on to explain the risk of losing the match before explaining the rules to the combatants.

''Is everyone ready?''

''Yes sir.''

''BEGIN!''

Jaune immediacy was on the defensive, the moment the command to start left Mendez's mouth Alice and Douglas were on the offensive while Jerome waited in the back, ready to back up his team if it was needed.

Despite Alice and Douglas' offensive and teamwork skills Jaune tanked through it, blocking and tanking the blows that hit like a tank, each successful hit delivered by the offending group only causing Jaune to whence in pain momentarily before going on as usual. Although he had yet to get a single effective hit in, each time he tried Alice would counter or dodge while Douglas would block leaving him open from an attack from Alice.

The fight was heavily one sided, with Jaune not able to land a hit of his own while he was already starting to bruise in several places, the fight would be over soon without the third member needing to raise a hand.

' **THAWK!'**

Jaune stumbled backwards, dazed by the blow to his temple from Alice, his vision blurred making it hard to recognise anything in front of him. He felt something cool running down his forehead and brought a hand up to feel it, seeing it was wet Jaune brought his hand in front of his face to see a blurry red covering his hand. He felt it again and hissed, toughing the open wound causing it to sting.

Hearing a muffled voice Jaune looked up but paused, his eyes widening partly, his heart getting fast and a cold sweat washing over him.

Grimm.

They were all around him, there bony white masks misshaped into wicked humanoid smiles, there black bodies melding together momentarily before reforming. He felt an intense fear seeing the three closest to him, getting closer, large grins plastered onto there bony masks, he couldn't move, his body wouldn't let him, he tried to move himself away but his body stood stiff, paralyzed by fear.

When the first grim touched him, he moved into action, the pent up energy from his fear releasing in the form of a swift open palm strike to it's ugly mask, he heard something crunching under is hand but payed it no mind, only focusing on the dim white glow around his body the empowered him and the other two grimm charging towards him, there maws and claws open wide to avenge there fallen comrade.

When the second grimm reached him he bent down low, avoiding a sweep aimed at his head and countered with an elbow into the grimms gullet, hearing a gag from above Jaune moved up and used his head as a weapon to uppercut the stunned grimm knocking it away, ignoring the searing pain from his head wound.

The last grimm finally reached him, managing to hit him on the side of the head with a closed fist, the strike only stopped him for a moment. Before the grimm knew it, he was already on the floor, winded from the freefall onto it's back before a fist imbedded itself into it's gut.

The first approached again, running towards him slower this time, a bit wobbly with blood leaking from it's snout, he moved in with superhuman speed and using the beasts surprise against it he moved behind it, wrapped his arm around the grimm's throat he began to pull up, ignoring the grimms struggles to remove him he held strong, his grip becoming tighter and tighter with each passing second until the grimm went limp.

Then he heard it, a voice, he couldn't make it out, it was muffled as if someone was shouting through a wall at him, but it was slowly getting clearer with each passing second.

 _ **P.T…DO..**_

 _ **PUT…D!**_

 _ **PUT HER DOWN J-172!**_

As the voice cleared up as did his vision.

He could see the surprised and shocked looks of his fellow trainees' but more importantly the gun pointed at him.

''PUT HER DOWN J-172 OR I WILL SHOOT!'' Mendez shouts, clicking the safety off his pistol.

Jaune was confused, why would he put the grimm down? Was he insane? If he did it would try and kill them.

He looked down at the grimm and paused, the familiar mop of dirty blond hair registering in his mind. Without thinking he let go of Alice causing her to crumple to the ground giving him a good look at what he'd done to her, a broken nose, shallow breathing and deep red markings along her neck. His attention moved to the rest of 'red-team' to see them on the floor, Douglas unconscious while Jerome was laying on the ground cradling his gut in severe pain.

''What…'' Jaune tried to speak but was stopped when he was suddenly forced to look at Mendez's furious face when he grabbed his training uniform by the scruff.

''J-172, When I tell you to stop you STOP!'' Mendez roars, pushing Jaune away causing him to stumble backwards two steps before loosing balance and falling onto his ass.

''J-172, You'll be spending the next few days in the brig for disobeying orders. And someone get these kids to the infirmary A-stat!'' Mendez says bringing the training room back into order, the on-hand medic crew getting to work on 'red-team' while Mendez picked Jaune up by his uniform. ''You're coming with me.''

 **-=Observation room=-**

Halsey was stunned.

She couldn't piece together what she had just witnesses. J-172 in a three Vs. One situation against the self-made 'Red team', she'd expected Jaune to lose the fight and she was right for the first half but suddenly out of no-where after receiving a head injury Jaune went into a trance.

Within the next ten seconds of chaos Jaune had beaten two of his opponents and almost broke the third one's neck and would have if Mendez hadn't snapped him out of it.

However, this was at the back of her mind right now, she was focused on the bright flash of light that engulfed the room just before Jaune went on the offense, it was so brief she'd missed it the first time, only noticing it the second time over when she didn't blink. Right now, she looked over the image of Jaune open palm striking Alice with each force to break not only her nose but also one of her cheek bones.

''How is this possible? No child should ever be able to deliver enough force to break a check bone and nose with a strike like that…'' Halsey mumbles aloud, looking at the image play repeatedly before she noticed it. A thin white outline was around Jaune, almost invisible but it overlay him like a second skin.

''This has to be it.'' Halsey says, pausing the video just as Jaune strike Alice, the still image showing the white outline flaring around his palm, shoulder and elbow.

''This is truly interesting isn't it Halsey?'' Bright asks, moving his chair up beside Halsey and looking at the white outline around Jaune.

''Indeed, whatever this…light is, it managed to amplify his blow to deliver enough force to break his combatants nose, right cheek bone and knock her off her feet…'' Halsey explains, holding back the awe from her voice to safe face.

''I can see, whatever this is it has to be linked to where Jaune came from, imagine, a world filled with super humans who could use that type of power, sounds like something out of a cartoon.'' Bright says, adding in a joke to lighten the mood.

''Yes…it does seem like it is out of a 'cartoon'. But this is real life, what we witnessed was real, Jaune for some reason demonstrated previously unknown strength and abilities that could take out three of the other trainee's even with they worked together. When Jaune went into that trance the fight was already over…'' Halsey replies, studying the video with a critical eye.

''He's certainly full of surprises, wouldn't you agree? Who knew such an accident could become a blessing in disguise.'' Bright says, not withholding his surprise of the situation.

''No Doctor Bright, there's no such thing as accidents, just happy little mistakes…'' Halsey says, a small smile gracing her lips at the progress Jaune had made since coming here.

''Though we should probably stop Mendez from killing the poor boy.'' Bright adds, getting a nod from Halsey prompting the both of them to stand and leave the room, intent on asking Jaune some questions about what had just transpired.


	3. The start of the Human-Covenant war

**Location: UEG controlled planet, Harvest. (Under invasion)**

 **Military operations: City evacuation**

 **Estimated casualties: 10K+**

 **Year: 2525**

 **Date: January 23rd**

 **Time: 15:27PM**

''GET THOSE EVACUTATION SHIPS OFF THE GROUND!'' The UNSC captain Leo Mill bridge shouts, pushing the evacuation crafts captain towards the ship.

''B-but sir! The sky's a warzone! We won't make it out!'' The evacuation ships captain replies, fearing the worst if he takes off.

''I don't care! We have to try and get as many civilians off the planet! Use the evacuation route set up by the defensive fleet!'' Leon replies and after a moment the evacuation crew complies and boards, not much after the ship was off the ground giving room for the next to fill up with civilians.

' _How did this happen, it was a normal day damn it and that fucking ship came! It tore through the defensive fleet like paper.'_ Leon says internally, looking at the unknown cruiser hovering above the city, countless fighters and drop ships moving in and out as they raided the city.

''CONTACTS! DEFEND THE CIVILAINS!'' A marine shouts before being shot through the skull by a purple needle made from crystal, the falling of his body began a panic as civilians began to scatter towards the evacuation ship, the peace held by the marine presence immediately crushed by the army of alien's firing on their position.

''GET TO COVER! PROVIDE COVER FOR THE CIVILIAN EVACUATIONS UNTILL BACK-UP ARRIVES!'' Leon shouts, moving into cover with several other marines as a hail of gunfire rings out from both sides. The exchange of fire was impossible to follow, burning hot plasma from the unknown aliens Vs. the bullets of the thirty UNSC army marines defending the evacuation efforts.

It was chaos.

''DAMN IT JINKINS GET THAT ROCKET LOADED WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME UNTILL THAT TANKS IN RANGE OF THE EVACUATION CRAFT!'' Leo shouts, taking the rocket launcher from the shaking soldier and loading it himself before willing himself to look over the cover and locking onto the tank.

''BURN IN HELL YOU PURPLE BASTARDS!'' Leo shouts over the gun fire before firing the rocket, he dove back into cover to avoid being shot by a hail of plasma fire on his position, hearing the explosion of the rocket followed by another unknown explosion Leo grinned, a small victory but a victory none the less.

''WHERE IS THAT BACK UP!?'' Leo shouts, looking to the soldier with the long-range radio on his back for an answer.

''SIR WE HAVE TO RETREAT! A LARGE ENEMY FORCE IS HEADING TO THIS LOCATION!'' The comms soldier advices, his voice desperate to get away from the fight.

''CALL THE DAMN LEXICON TO FIRE A MAC AT THE ENEMY FORCES!'' Leo shouts, ready to shout again when the marine refused but was silenced when the answer fell out of the sky. There it was, there cover fright, a burning wreckage as it crashed into ground several miles away in a fiery explosion none could have survived, the shockwave washing over them as the ships nuclear arsenal goes off leaving only a radioactive mushroom cloud.

''T-THAT'S IT I'M LEAVING I DON'T WANT TO DIE!'' Jinkins shouts, moving to get up only to be pushed back into cover by Leo, saving his life from a plasma bolt aimed at his back.

''PICK UP YOUR GUN SOLDIER! WE'RE IN TOO DEEP TO RETREAT!'' Leo roars into Jinkins face, pushing the assault rifle into the soldier's arms.

He was going to die, Leo knew that, the UNSC LEXICON was gone, there only defence against invading forces reaching their location, with it gone the enemies were free to ransack their location. Leo shakenly put his hand into his breast pocket under his chest plate and pulled out a picture of him and his silver haired daughter.

''Don't worry Cal, daddies going to see you and mommy soon, just wait a little longer.'' Leo whispers, kissing the picture before putting back into the pocket.

''We're going to die aren't we sir.'' Jinkins asks over the gunfire, looking at his commanding officer with a downcast look. Instead of answering Jinkins directly Leo simply took a deep breath before looking over his cover and firing. Ignoring the sound of the final evacuation ship lifting off behind him.

* * *

 **Location: UEG controlled planet, Harvest. (Under invasion)**

 **Military operations: City evacuation**

 **Estimated casualties: 15K+**

 **Year: 2525**

 **Date: January 23rd**

 **Time: 15:39PM**

''Get those civilians on the elevator son! We don't have all day!'' Staff Sargent Avery Junior Johnson orders, pointing the militia soldier where to lead the scared civilians following him.

''Sargent sir! We just lost contact with the UNSC LEXICON! She is presumed downed!'' A Marine states, saluting in the presence of the Sargent.

''Damn it…with the LEXICON gone we're on our own.'' Johnson mutters, looking at the sky, watching the cloudy sky light up with explosions from the space battle above the city. Johnson looked back at the civilians who were loading onto the space elevator connected to the TIARA.

''We continue as planned marine, load the civilians into the elevator, we cannot lose the position.'' Johnson concludes, finally making up his mind on whether to retreat stay and fight.

''Yes sir!'' The marine shouts before moving back to his post.

''Captain Leo, do you read me?'' Johnson asks, turning on his medium ranged radio to communicate with the secondary evacuation group lead entirely by the army. Receiving static in return Johnson says a small prayer for the captain and his soldiers before focusing on getting his militia ready for a battle.

''Alright everyone! Prepare for battle! The enemy forces will arrive shortly!'' Johnson shouts, letting the slacking members of his militia who upon hearing the news went into action, getting into defensive positions to defend against an attack.

''Dying isn't an option soldiers! Until all the civilians are off this rock you are forbidden from dying! If I catch you slacking, I'll kick your ass all the way back to earth!'' Johnson shouts, relaying his order through his on-hand radio seeing the first of the dropships approaching.

''Open fire!'' Johnson orders unleashing hell as the militia and unknown forces began their assault exchanging gunfire. Luckily unlike the army's evacuation team they had proper cover, the builds aloud for sniper teams to pick off enemies while providing anti-air measures, wrecked vehicles offered garrison spots for his militia to take cover behind while the enemy forces had little in cover due to them clearing the area and using the ruined and abandoned vehicles for themselves. A bastardization of scorched earth tactics that helped them heavily in tipping the scales of their defence.

''Ah-ha it's like hunting birds with this thing!'' Johnson laughs, blowing a hole in a birdlike alien trying to rush there cover to get behind them. ''If only I brought birdshot I'd be able to cook em up into a nice stew!''

''Enemy aircraft closing! Anti-air team light 'em up!'' John shouts, noticing a pair of aircraft ready to bombard their location, seeing the aircraft being shot out of the sky moments later Johnson focused back on the steadily approaching ground forces.

''The hell!? Is that thing an ape!'' A marine by Johnson's side shouts brining John's attention to the ape like alien charing towards them with a large hammer in hand.

''Focus fire on the damn monkey!'' Johnson orders, pointing his shotgun at the ape and firing, peppering the armoured alien, directing the fire of the nearby marines and militia.

''DIE WORMS!'' The ape shouts in English surprising Johnson as it raised it's hammer, ready to bring down it's force on the surprised Sargent.

' **BOOM!'**

Johnson cracked open an eye to see the ape gone, he looked around before seeing the hammer on the ground as well as the armour of the ape like alien scattered around him.

'' _ **Sargent Johnson, this is scorpion red arrow, we'll be providing support until the main bulk of reinforcements arrive.''**_ Looking down at his radio as it buffed alive Johnson turns his head to the side to see the still smoking barrel of the scorpion pointed near him.

''DID YOU JUST SHOOT AT ME?!''

'' _ **Oh jes- No sir!''**_

* * *

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified**

 **Military operations: Spartan II program**

 **Year: 2525**

 **Date: March 9th**

 **Time: 17:47PM**

When Jaune awoke he hurt, not a sharp pain but it was dull, lingering, it felt like he was waking up from a bar fight, the sensitive feeling of his skin combined with his headache had momentarily made thing think he had been out drinking and got into a fight, then he remembered why he had been asleep.

' _The augmentation…'_

Jaune sat up sharply, ignoring the pain riddling his body, he looked around to see the room was dimly lit, sixty of the seventy other trainee's laying on their operation beds unconscious from the painful procedures. Seeing the group was mostly safe Jaune looked down at his hands and paused seeing operational scares running down his fingers, hands and arms leading onto his chest and over his skeletal structure. He also noticed he looked more buff and he felt unusually tall, he was already tall, being five foot seven at the tender age of fourteen but now he felt like he was in the higher six to lower seven foot range.

''I see you're awake Jaune…how do you feel?'' Jaune looks to his left hearing Haley's familiar voice, he smiled a little seeing the women many of the trainees' had come to call mother due to her care when speaking and teaching them.

''I feel…a little sore, taller and stronger…everything seems a little slower as well.'' Jaune lists, moving his legs over the side of the operation bed allowing his feet to touch the cold floor.

''Yes, that is normal and expected, the operations should make you not only stronger but also faster and hyper sensitive to things around you.'' Halsey comforts, placing a hand on Jaune's shoulder, a feat that was a tad bit hard for her seeing as Jaune was seven foot tall. ''The pain should fad in a few hours.''

''How is everyone else…?'' Jaune asks, watching Halsey carefully as she frowned.

''I'm sorry Jaune but only thirty-three passed the augmentation stage, thirty were incompatible and died while twelve were left physically disabled in some way.'' Halsey explains grimly, giving Jaune's shoulder a squeeze when his fists and jaw clenched. ''I'm sorry.''

''It's not your fault mum…we part took in the augmentation knowing the risk.'' Jaune sighs out, ridding of his anger before standing up, showing his full height to Halsey.

''You've certainly grown.'' Halsey comments, looking up at Jaune with a playful smirk.

''You've just gotten smaller.'' Jaune replies, slowly testing his movements before beginning to walk at a slow pace to get used to his height and weight difference.

''If you'll pardon me Jaune, I have a few others to speak to.'' Halsey pardons herself, turning and walking to John's table seeing he'd waken up.

''Alright mum.'' Jaune mummers, more concentrated on walking properly than paying attention to Halsey. Finally getting his walking under control Jaune looks down at his hand and calls forth his aura, watching as the colourless energy formed around his finger tips before he willed it away seeing it still worked.

The only thing on his mind now was who survived?

He looked over the tables, watching as some of the scientists draped covers over the deceased leaving only twenty-nine on the tables uncovered, recognising a few Jaune smiled.

CAL-141

J-052

J-117

Those he'd befriended were fine and alive, all surviving the augmentation process without any physical deformities just like himself. He smiled looking over his friends before stopping on Cal. Admittedly he'd had a crush on her during there training, through out the years he'd sneak glances at her but now the feeling was…oddly dull, like it was actively being supressed by his mind, instead trying to lure his mind into focusing on other things.

''Odd isn't it?'' Jaune once more turned his head to the side, hearing Bright speaking to him.

''What is?'' Jaune asks, raising a brow at brights vague question.

''That feeling you feel when you look at her? It's as something being supressed correct?'' Bright elaborates, smiling when a small tint came to Jaune's face.

''It does feel weird, it's like my minds forcing me to focus on other things, like that she's a soldier, a capable warrior, someone I trained with and trust to fight beside but it's not letting me see her as a woman.'' Jaune explains, getting a hum from Bright who pats his back.

''Yes that's what that does, we've dulled your more… _sexual_ …urges to prevent distractions such as a good looking girl getting in the way of your missions.'' Bright explains, slapping Jaune's back before continuing. ''Plus, she was way outta your league.''

' _Don't hit him, don't hit him, don't hit him, he might die so don't hit him whatever you do.'_ Jaune repeats internally, masking his annoyance with a look of indifference as he looked down at the doctor, holding himself back from punching the man.

''Are you sure it's wise to be making those types of jokes around me?'' Jaune asks flatly, only yo raise a brow as the doctor erupts into laughter.

''Of course, it is! You have more than enough self-restraint to not hit me! Why do you think I always pick on you for?'' Bright explains much to Jaune's displeasure.

''I'd have honestly preferred not to have known that.'' Jaune admits.

''Well you do now, anyhow I'm sure you want to speak with your friends, so I'll leave you too it.'' Bright says before making his leave, patting Jaune on the shoulder as he did so.

''Friends huh? They feel more like family…'' Jaune says to himself, images of his family before being taken away from them flashing in his mind, his mom, dad and seven sisters all blank faced as the memories flashed in his mind. _'It's been so long I've forgotten what they look like…Maybe it's for the better?'_

''So you're alive then.'' Jorge says, watching Jaune approach with a smirk on his face.

''I am.'' Jaune says, offering a hand for Jorge to take and pulls him up when the other augmented trainee takes it.

''Hmph, you've certainly grown.'' Jorge comments, standing himself up putting them at around the same height with Jaune being a small bit taller.

''I'm sure you'll outgrow me when you're eighteen.'' Jaune says dismissively, looking over at Cal to see she was still sleeping.

''Uh, that's a weird feeling if I've ever felt one.'' Jorge says, feeling the sexual suppression take effect.

''Tell me about it.'' Jaune huffs out.

''Don't worry Jaune, I'm sure there's another version of you out there that gets with the silver haired girl, just not this one.'' Jorge says, punching Jaune lightly on the shoulder.

''I'd really prefer if you kept that between us.'' Jaune says, holding back a blush at Jorge's teasing. ''The fact that Bright knows is bad enough.''

 **UEG Home world earth**

 **Location: ONI headquarters.**

 **Military operations: None.**

 **Year: 2525**

 **Date: November 1st**

 **Time: 20:17PM**

''I see…now the question is do we release this information to the public or just the UNSC?'' One of the ONI's chiefs says, looking at the information given about the loss of communication with Harvest months ago.

''I don't think we should, I believe the UNSC should be informed first and when needed we'll inform the civilian populous.'' A female member of the board offers.

''I agree.'' Another adds, three nods soon followed.

''Very well, we'll forward the information to the commanding officers of the UNSC as classified information for military personnel only.'' The first ONI chief says before bringing up the next subject.

''The spartan program has almost finished. Doctor Halsey and researcher Bright have informed us that thirty of the seventy-five candidates survived the procedures and are ready to be armed with the MJOLNIR armour.'' The chief explains, bringing up an image of the thirty candidates that survived for the board to see.

''Only thirty…I was hoping for more, but those drugs and medical procedures were experimental, it's a miracle we got more than ten.'' One of the members comments.

''Indeed, however this is a perfect opportunity to test our new super soldiers.'' A member says, putting an image of the image taken by the CMA Argo before it was destroyed side the remaining Spartans.

''I say we deploy our Spartans in the counter attack, it will be an opportunity for ONI to flex it's power in the UNSC.'' The same member explains his plan.

''And if it backfires? Are you prepared to pay that money back we used on those soldiers and the armour?'' The first member asks, an edge to his tone.

''Hmph, if we skulk in the shadows we'll slowly fade like them, I agree that we should use the Spartans in the UNSC's counter attack, if it succeeds the ONI could potentially expand and grab more power in the UNSC, especially if a war comes from this.'' The female member says, defending the plan on sending the Spartans to Harvest.

''Agreed.

''Aye.''

''Very well, at a vote of Four to one we agree to send the Spartans on the Harvest campaign.'' The first member sighs out. ''I hope you know what you're doing, don't let greed cloud your mind.''

''Don't worry director, we have trust in our weapons to work as intended.'' The female says, a sinister smile on her face.

-=UNSC Meriwether Lewis=-

''Dear god…'' Jacob keys breaths out, reading over the document given to him by ONI, as shady as they were information from them was almost 100% accurate and as insane as this information was he was positive it was true.

''Aliens, I'd honestly thought it was insurrectionists ballsing up but this…'' Jacob says to himself, placing the document down onto the table with a heavy sigh. ''I wonder…Halsey did you know something like this would happen? Is it why you made…them?''

He'd probably never get an answer to that question, those Spartans were like children to her and she'd defend them like any mother would using lies, manipulation and politics to do so.

''I hope those kids are prepared because they're about to be thrown into a world not even the most veteran of UNSC soldiers would be prepared for.'' Jacob says, leaning back in his chair with another sigh.

''A world of hurt awaits those kids Halsey, one that not even a special suit can protect them from. I hope you know that.''

 **UNSC ONI SITE**

 **Location: Classified.**

 **Military operations: Spartan II program.**

 **Year: 2525**

 **Date: November 28th**

 **Time: 09:25AM**

There new armour had arrived, Halsey's prized MJOLNIR armour, power armour to enhance there already enhanced strength, although it was half a ton it was nothing for them, just a paper weight in the end, with the suits they were stronger, faster and more intimidating. It was something to be excited about, something they'd been waiting for. But they weren't instead they were mourning.

They were twenty-six now.

Before this they'd lost three, four of there fellow trainee's escaped, managing to escape and return to there home planets, in the end only Daisy came back. Two had committed suicide after finding out they were replaced with flash clones while another had killed his before being taken back, he was judged mentally instable to part-take in the spartan project and had been dismissed. Last he'd heard he returned to his family and met an old childhood friend he was kicking it off with.

But now Samuel was gone.

The mood was happy at first, everyone was upbeat about getting their armour, ready to kick ass but that was spoiled when they got news of Samuels death, dying destroying a cruiser of the new threat that had been the reason for Harvests sudden silence. They called themselves the covenant. From what the UNSC knew they were a religious group composed of different races of aliens, far more advanced than humanity and wanted their extinction. A lovely combination.

''What do you think Jorge? Aliens sound insane enough for you?'' Jaune asks, looking over at Jorge who like himself was wearing his MJOLNIR armour, putting the both of them over the seven-foot mark.

''Hm, Aliens, seems farfetched, then again so was our imaginations of immortality, so I'd say it's insane but believable.'' Jorge replies, signing before adding. ''Even so I plan on kicking some alien ass. For Samuel.''

''For Samuel.'' Jaune says, fist bumping Jorge before they stand up.

 **Harvest (covenant controlled)**

 **Location: Harvest space.**

 **Military operations: Harvest campaign.**

 **Year: 2526**

 **Date: March 1st**

 **Time: 19:11PM**

The space was silent, only the covenants searcher fleet remaining above the glassed planet, with the relics still to be found the covenant refused to leave, the ships sending down search team after search team in search of the holy artefacts of the covenant, they were confidant the human's would never return, detoured by there show of power by taking the planet over night with little casualties.

It was a shame this lead to their downfall.

They were unprepared when a fleet suddenly appeared, catching the covenant off guard, without time to power up there shields three CPV-heavy class cruisers were destroyed instantly, the front line UNSC ships piercing their hulls with prepared mac shots, the space battle ensued, the larger less advanced UNSC fleet Vs. the undermanned, divided and more advanced covenant fleet.

''DEPLOY ALL FIGHTERS, FOCUS FIRE ON THE LARGER CRUISERS AND KEEP YOUR DISTANCE!''

The orders relayed signalled the beginning of the first even battle of the human covenant war, the space engagements were explosive, the covenants superior weaponry making short work of some of the smaller frigates while the UNSC were forced to chip away at the shields first before going for the kill with heavier weaponry.

Although with there numbers and surprise the fight was still a struggle, many UNSC cruisers and frigates going down just to destroy and single covenant cruiser and eventually when the tides began to turn in the favour of the covenant the fleets commander relayed a single order.

''Fire all weapons.''

And like that the battle ended, the UNSC obliterated the remaining covenant fleet, the bombardment of countless missiles, mac rounds and nuclear weapons overpowering the superior shield technology leaving the more delicate metal hull vulnerable to be pierced and decimated by the UNSC. In the end the victory came over to the UNSC but at the cost of many lives and ships in doing so.

''Status report!'' Preston cole orders, watching as the last covenant cruiser exploded into scrap metal, ending the fight in their favour.

''Sir we lost several frigates and the Marathon class heavy cruiser Rigged was heavily damaged in the fight, the Denmark is moving in to assist.

''Good, I want FOB's on that rock as soon as possible, we need to set up a strong hold on the world as soon as possible in the case the hostile forces return.'' Cole explains.

''Yes sir!'' The deck hand replies before getting quick to work.

''Sir the Denmark has marked several locations for a fortress to be set up, they are requesting permission to deploy!''

''Permission granted.'' Cole says, watching as the Denmark's base bays opened and began to deploy troop filled pelicans escorting the parts of UNSC deployable fortress'.

''Sir, we've received a message from ONI, passing it through to your personal PDA.'' The deck hand says, transferring the classified file to Cole's personal PDA allowing him to read the document attached. If anyone had been watching the fleet's commander, they would have noticed him smirking as he read through the document detailing the possible use of super soldiers known as 'Spartans' in the harvest campaign with his authorization.

''Super soldiers? Now that's something I can't decline…especially with the casualties we were dealt.'' Cole mummers to himself before authorizing their deployment, having a small amount of trust that the ONI sector of the UNSC would deliver.

''Now, lets see how this plays out.'' Cole says, watching as hundreds of marines, scorpions, warthogs and other UNSC vehicles were being deployed on the planet below.

 **Harvest (Contested)**

 **Location: Several miles outside of abandoned capital city.**

 **Military operations: Harvest campaign.**

 **Year: 2526**

 **Date: March 2nd**

 **Time: 03:16AM**

''Alright marines! The fleet's detected a large amount of slip space ruptures near the planet! The enemy will be here within the hour!'' Lt. Kilroy shouts, hustling his soldiers to put the finishing touches to the deployed fortresses defences.

Kilroy watched with a smirk as the marines were hard at work, handing out weapon, ammo, food and fuel to each other's for their own purposes, the resistance they'd met on the ground had been minimal, there large numbers with the defeat of the alien's fleet forced them to flee leaving them with an easy base set up.

'' **Lieutenant Kilroy! How's the FOB coming?''** Coles voice blasts through the man's radio almost making him swear, he with holds it and takes the radio into hand.

''Smoothly, little resistance from the aliens so far, they mostly retreated when we arrived.'' Kilroy explains.

'' **Excellent work, get those fortresses set up so we can send supplies down to reinforce you. The Denmark will be your Zues for this operation, transferring you over to captain Donald.''** Cole says before ending the comms link.

'' **This is Denmark, captain Donald Alister speaking, do you read FOB?''** Donald asks.

''Yes sir! This is Lieutenant Kilroy, commander of FOB one.'' Kilroy replies, keeping an eye on the sky while occasionally glancing at his marines to make sure they weren't slacking.

' _I really don't like people with two first names…'_

'' **We're sending supplies and reinforcements down now, call in if anything changes.''** James says before ending the link.

Although annoying to be repeatedly called in they were necessary, radio checks to ensure the comms worked correctly and that there was no interference from the enemy.

'' **Contacts stopped us to the north east!''** Kilroy's radio bursts to life, the spotters he'd sent out making contact.

''Get those two scorpions to the north east, have a detachment of marines and hogs follow them!'' Kilroy orders prompting the marines to get out of the way as the scorpions get into action, a detachment of twenty marines and three hogs following after them.

''Spotter three, what's your situation?'' Kilroy asks through the radio.

'' **Sir! We're surrounded, they have about thirty infantry and a tank pinning us down!''** Spotter three shouts through the radio, the sounds of gunfire almost drowning out the spotter's voice.

''Hold tight Spotter three, we have a detachment of scorpions and marines heading to your location.'' Kilroy informs before ending the call, praying that the detachment he'd sent would be enough and would get there on time.

''Sir when will we move into the capital?''Kilroy asks, pulling his radio from it's holder and speaking to the captain of the Denmark.

'' **Baby steps Lieutenant, first we secure several strong holds and then we make to retake what's left off Utgrad.''** Donald replies before ending the link between them.

''Sir the first of the supplies is arriving!'' A marine calls brings Kilroy's attention to the supply dropship moving towards the base. He watched it slowly descend to the supply pad and begin to offload its cargo before lifting off again to bring more cargo to the base.

'' **Good, set up the barracks for our marines and get a power generator up and running.''** Kilroy orders into the radio, pointing at the base engineers who nod before getting to work.

''Detachment one, status report!''Kilroy calls in, checking up on the detachment he'd sent to help the spotters.

'' **Sir! We're in combat with the alien forces! We have them on the run but we've lost a scorpion! That damn alien tank hit the thing with plasma and melted the cannon!''** The detachment groups leader replies, explaining the situation to Kilroy who frowns. They weren't even here an hour and they were already down a scorpion.

''Alright, get those spotters back here, don't chase the enemy and if you can bring some of there tech back here, I'm sure the egg heads would want to see it.'' Kilroy says, sighing as he put away the radio.

' _I have the feeling this is going to be a long war…'_

 **Harvest (Conflicted)**

 **Location: Harvest space.**

 **Military operations: Harvest campaign.**

 **Year: 2526**

 **Date: March 5th**

 **Time: 08:46AM**

When it came to super soldiers, Cole expected many things, tall strong men, veterans of the UNSC, something similar to the Orion project, as one of his position would expect when offered supersoldiers.

He was both impressed and disappointed.

There was twenty-six. All standing tall ranging from 6'8-7'4 in height, trained since childhood by the best of the best, augmented super soldiers, bones replaced with a near indestructible replacement and to top it all off, power armour that enhanced there already enhanced abilities.

However, they were all children. The oldest was fifteen years old while the youngest was thirteen, close to fourteen.

''So you're the soldiers I was promised? I expected more but you'll do.'' Cole says, finishing looking over the group of saluting soldiers.

''Step forwards if you've part-taken in an active mission for the UNSC.'' Cole orders, watching as fifteen of the Spartans stepped forwards.

''Good, The fifteen that have stepped forwards will be sent to the surface to help with the ground forces, the rest will stay with the fleet, they will help with the space battles.'' Cole explains, ready to leave only to be stopped as Jaune speaks up.

''Sir. I believe that our specialities should be taken into account when giving us posts.'' Jaune says.

''Hm…That is true, tell me son, what is your specialty?'' Cole asks walking in front of Jaune.

''Close quarters combat sir.'' Jaune replies, cutting his salute and looking into Cole's eyes.

''I see your point, all those who wish to be deployed on the planet step forwards, if you wish to stay with the fleet stay in the back line.'' Cole says, moving back and watching as ten Spartans moved forwards while four moved back.

''Anything else soldiers?'' Cole asks, hearing no objections Cole nods. ''Good, you're dismissed! All spartans who're going planet side go to the hanger bay for deployment! The rest of you follow me.''

Jogging to Jorge's side Jaune falls in beside him, being sure to give the fellow spartan a slap on the back to make him aware of his arrival.

''You sure you ain't looking for Cal? Could have sworn she was back th-'' Jorge gets cut off by Jaune who slaps him on the back of the head shutting him up. ''Fine fine, thanks for saving me from ship duty.''

''No problem, plus I would have been stuck in here as well so it was for both of us.'' Jaune says, accepting the thanks with a cocky tone that earned him a slap from another spartan falling in beside them. ''Ow…''

''Don't get cocky Jaune, this is serious.'' John scolds.

''Don't worry about him John, I'll be sure to pull him out of the mud when he gets stuck.'' Cal says, bringing the groups attention to her.

''She's right John, we've got his back and he's got ours.'' Jorge chimes in, wrapping an arm around Jaune's shoulder and pulling him down before giving his helmet a heavy pat.

''I'm not a dog you know.'' Jaune says flatly, only getting a laugh from Jorge and Cal while John just let out an amused sigh.

''Well, blue team needs me, I'll hopefully see you on the ground.'' John says before slowing down and letting the rest of his team to catch up.

''Now that I think of it, our team doesn't have a name.'' Cal comments, realizing that everyone who'd grouped up gave themselves a team name while they had just stuck with calling each other bu there names.

''We should be team ARC.'' Jaune suggests only to be shot down immediately by Cal who scolds him for trying to name their team after his second name. Something that was against there Spartan code of conduct. ''Fine…what do you think we should name our team?''

''I don't know.'' Cal admits.

''I agree with Jaune, we should just go with ARC team.'' Jorge says as they walked into the hanger-bay to see several pelicans waiting for them.

''Fine, we'll be ARC team, for now.'' Cal sighs out, admitting defeat for now but would come back with a vengeance later.

''Alright ARC team, let's get our gear and meet back here.'' Jaune says prompting the group to split up and get there equipment in order before leaving. Jaune moved over to the close quarters weapons and picked up a MA3 assault rifle and a M45 shotgun before selecting his last weapon, an M6D magnum sidearm. Jorge moved over to the biggest weapon he could get his hands on, a chain gun that he pulled from it's mounted restraint after attaching the ammo boxes to his armours magnetic locks. Cal preferred more long ranged weapons and took a M6D magnum like Jaune and a SRS 99 Anti-material rifle.

''A gatling gun? Really?'' Jaune asks, watching with Cal as Jorge approached with a grin plastered on his face.

''Ah-ha what can I say Jaune? I love me a big gun.'' Jorge answers giddily, hefting the large gun over his shoulder when he finally reached the other two Spartans.

''I just think you're compensating for something.'' Jaune says flatly, ignoring the raised fist pointed at his head as he moved to the Pelican. ''By the way Jorge, if you get stuck in mud, don't expect me to pull you and that gun out.''

''I'll be sure not to get stuck.'' Jorge says, walking into the Pelican after Cal and dropping onto his seat, trying to ignore the snickers from Jaune as the Pelican bounced from the sudden weight dropped onto it. ''Not a word.''

The group sat in silence, checking over there equipment as the waited for the rest of the Spartans to arrive and fill the pelican. They remained like this for several minutes until the next group moved into the pelican and sat down.

''Red team.'' Jaune says in greeting, looking up from his shotgun and looking at Alice, Douglas and Jerome sitting opposite them.

''Jaune.'' Jerome says back, not looking up from his assault rifle, more focused on checking his equipment was up to standard. Jaune looked over the other members of red team and go the same reply, they simply said his name in greeting while doing some last second changes to their weapons.

They never really did get over that incident…

''Red team, seeing as we'll be working together down there…'' Jaune starts getting the attention of red team. ''I just want to make it clear that our personnel grudges shouldn't get in the way of our mission, I expect you to watch my back and I'll watch yours in return. Deal?''

The silence that followed was tense, the five other Spartans in the pelican all focused on the hand offered to red teams leader, Jerome. Jerome watched the hand silently before finally accepting the hand and shaking it. ''We'll watch your back 'ARC' team.''

''Ugh…you heard that?'' Jaune asks getting red team to nod.

''Everyone did, it's a bit hard not to hear you of all people.'' Alice says getting Jaune to face palm. Missing the last group to get into their pelican.

''ARC, Red and grey teams ready for deployment.'' Jai says to the pilot who begins lift off procedures. ''So…ARC team huh?''

''Please don't mention it…'' Jaune sighs into his hands, trying and failing to ignore Jorge laughing while Cal just pat his back reassuringly as the pelican went airborne and set off towards Harvest's Forward operating base outside Utgard to join the five year fight to retake Harvest.


	4. Harvest

**Harvest (Conflicted)**

 **Location: Harvest orbit**

 **Military operations: Harvest campaign.**

 **Year: 2526**

 **Date: March 5th**

 **Time: 09:28AM**

Jaune didn't know what to expect from Harvest, from reports he'd gotten along with the other Spartans it was meant to be a lush world, brilliant forests, lovely cities and great weather, Halsey had once called it a nice vacation resort since she'd been there on holiday. But now…

''The covenant really messed this place up...'' Jaune mutters.

Jaune was looking out of the cockpit at the glassed planet, it's once lush forests were gone, replaced by a layer of dark obsidian like glass burned into the landscape, under the glass layer you could see the planet surface was still hot, angry red hot lines moved around the planets surface, all spreading out from much larger circular burned points that dotted the world's surface. To make matters worse the planet was currently under going a nuclear winter, the effects of the glassing causing catastrophic damage to the ecosystem and the worlds atmosphere, shrouding the world's O-zone layer in a thin layer of ash and dust that blocked out of stars heat leaving the planet deadly levels of cold.

All and all it was a mess.

''Damn right, the covvie's burned every square inch of the place with plasma.'' The pilot replies as they enter the dust layer, immediately they're bombarded by a hail of snow, ash and dust but the pilot just flicked a switch that used filtered air to blow the debris from the window allowing him to see again.

''Don't worry about the effects on the ground, reports are there's just light snow, it's only really bad up here.'' The pilot says, answering the question before Jaune could even think of it never mind say it. ''But I'd suggest getting into your seat and strapping in, it might get a bit bumpy.''

Following the pilots advice Jaune moved out of the cockpit and closed the door before making a B-line for his seat and dropping onto it, pulling the safety guard over himself and waiting for the pilot to reach the destination.

''Nervous?'' Jorge asks suddenly, looking over at Jaune with a lopsided smirk.

''A little, It's my first mission.'' Jaune admits, looking back with a sheepish grin on his face.

''Don't sweat it. we'll be deploying to reinforce some marines to take back Charlie base.'' Mike-120 of grey team explains. ''So we'll have some reinforcements to help us.''

''Good to know.'' Alice says with a collective nod from Red team.

''How did we lose a base so fast though?'' Cal asks, looking at Mike who shrugged not knowing the answer, before he could voice his lack of knowledge the pilot suddenly spoke.

''We'll be arriving at the drop point in a few seconds, prepare to get out, LZ's hot!'' The pilot shouts back prompting the Spartans to do a last second check of there weapons to ensure they all worked properly.

''We're here!'' The pilot says, brining the pelican to a halt and lowering it down letting the Spartans jump out and break for cover while the alien's focused on the Pelican that moved off when all the spartans were out.

''That went smoother than I thought it would.'' Jaune admits as he takes a seat between Jorge and Cal who had moved behind a semi-destroyed wall covered in bullet holes and plasma burns.

Rather than reply Jorge hefted his gatlin gun up and onto the wall and began to lay down supressive fire on the alien's who'd stopped firing as the hail of bullets pelted there cover, seeing it as an opening to get closer Jaune sent a nod of thanks to Jorge before he moved across the open ground and joined Red team who were the closest to the alien group at around forty meters away.

''Nice of you to join us J.'' Douglas greets dismissivly, more focused on reloading his assult rifle.

''Hm, nice to be here.'' Jaune says before looking over the cover and looking at the highlighted alien's with cross hairs over them, they were marked courtesy of Cal using her sniper rifles marking feature to tag enemies rather than take pot shots of them while they were in cover.

''There's a group of three large aliens behind the cover there, twenty meters from us, just to the right.'' Jaune calls out for Alice who moves her assult rifle's sights on the spot and starts laying down fire on an alien who'd looked over, protected by it's shield the alien dives back down seeing and feeling that it'd been spotted.

''Hmph, damn shields.'' Alice huffs out in annoyance, moving back into cover seeing a hail of purple spikes being fired at her.

''Use a frag to draw them out and focus fire on them, there shields won't last forever.'' Jerome chimes in prompting Jaune to take one of his frags and pull the pin as he stands up, spotting the markers over the cover Jaune throws the frag at the cover, smirking as it lands just over the cover and in front of the aliens who do the smart thing and jump out of there cover.

Seeing the aliens were out of cover Alive and Jerome immediately got to work, firing a hail of bullets at the retreating aliens and knocking there sheilds down leaving them exposed to Jaune and Douglas who finished them off with a few well placed rounds with there more accurate weapons.

''If it continues like this we'll be here all day, we need a way to draw them out somehow.'' Alice says, looking over at Jaune who raised a brow under his helmet.

''Why're you looking at me?'' Jaune asks.

''Because, you're a strategist, think of something.'' Alice explains getting an 'oh' from Jaune who starts to try and put a plan together. After a few minutes of thinking an idea pops in Jaune's head and without second guessing himself he stands up and turns on his helmets loud speaker, ignoring Alice and Jerome trying to pull him back under.

''YOUR GODS SUCK!''

Silence. Pure silence filled the battlefield, the marines and spartan's paused there fire in confusion, looking at Jaune like he was crazy for suddenly shouting something so random. The Alien's on the other hand had a more...hands on approach to Jaune's speech.

''Kill the blasphemer!'' An order shouted from an alien in cover and immediately the alien's were on the offensive, moving out of cover in a reckless manner to get to Jaune who ducked down behind cover to avoid the hail of weapon fire the was aimed at him.

''Don't just gawk! shoot!'' Jaune shouts, breaking the marines and spartans out of there shock prompting them to start firing on the approaching aliens, picking them off as they tried to cross forty meters of mostly uncovered ground.

By the time the first alien made it to Jaune's cover there was only seven of the original twenty left. Seeing seven angry alien's with swords in there hand's close Jaune broke cover, avoiding a sword slash that glanced over his chest plate leaving a small cut in the metal. Stumbling over a rock Jaune rolled backwards onto his knees and took out his shotgun in one motion and aimed at the closest alien that was lowering it's sword in a stabbing position towards his head.

Pulling the trigger Jaune watched satisfied as the slug hit the alien square in the chest knocking it off it's feet and breaking it's shield with a 'pop' leaving small arcs of electrical energy to dance over the alien's armour. Pumping the shotgun Jaune stood up and firing another slug into the alien's unshielded chest blasting through the lightly armoured area with ease and punching a hole in the alien's chest that bubbled with purple blood, the alien taking it's last breath before death.

Pumping his shotgun again Jaune aimed up jump in time to be greeted with the ugly mandibled face of another alien with it's arm reared back to impale him on it's sword. Not having a proper shot on the alien Jaune moves the shotgun to act as a bat and strikes the alien's head knocking it off balance allowing the sword to pass by his face harmlessly, just missing contact with his visor as Jaune moved his head to the side as well. Grabbing hold of the stunned alien's sword arm and twisting it, Jaune lifted his other arm and used his elbow to stike the alien's stiffened arm with a sicken crack as Jaune's arm smashes through the alien's bone breaking it with ease causing the alien to cry out in pain before it's head was blown off by Douglas' shotgun covering Jaune's helmet in alien brains.

''You cut it close there, Jaune.'' Douglas says with a sigh, watching him push the alien off of himself and onto the ground where it twitched.

''Thanks to you I'll be smelling like alien brains for a weak.'' Jaune says flattly, brushing the blood, bone and brain matter of the alien off his visor and staring at Douglas with a look to match his voice getting a low laugh from the other Spartan.

''You'll be fine, besides, purple suits you.'' Douglas jokes, patting Jaune's shoulder before he checked on his team who'd dispatched the other aliens who'd jumped over there cover.

''What were you thinking! That plan was reckless and could have gotten you killed!'' Cal shouts, marching up to Jaune who takes a step back as an armoured finger gets shoved into his visor.

''Well!..Uh, It worked, right?'' Jaune says, only further angering the silver haired Spartan who huffs angrily and gives him a push making him stumble backwards.

''Come on Cal, give him a break, he was thinking on the fly.'' Jorge says coming to Jaunes defence.

''Fine, but don't do anything stupid like that again! we've already lost to many of us as is.'' Cal says, hesitantly giving Jaune his 'break'.

''Fine, fine.'' Jaune says with a sigh, looking over the other spartans who were in turn giving him disapproving stares under there helmets for his brash action. Before he could further defend his actions a heavy footstep suddenly got his attention prompting him to turn around to see a shimmer in the light behind him.

''Look out!'' Jaune shouts, grabbing hold of Cal's chest plate and throwing her to the side as he himself moved back, avoiding a death by impalement by a group of aliens that suddenly faded into existence, deactivating there active camo showing themselves to be dotted around the group of spartan's with there weapons ready.

''Hostiles!'' Jerome shouts, ducking under a slash from the a spartan and ramming into the alien taking them to the ground into a fist fight while Alice was able to use her arm to stop the alien from slashing her and kicked it's side. Douglas bent back, avoiding a slash aimed at his neck and used the opening to fire his assault rifle as the alien forcing it to retreat while he fell on the ground.

Seeing an alien ready to bring it's sword down on him Jaune raised an arm in a fruitless attempt to grab the alien's arm, thankfully he wouldn't need to as Jorge unloaded on the distracted alien knocking it off balance causing it to stumble into fall onto Jaune who grunted at the impact.

''Invisibility?! Now that is bullshit right there!'' Andriana-111 shouts as he pulls the alien who'd attacked her into a headlock and started to choke it out while the other members of grey team were in fist fights with the aliens who'd decided to attack them.

Pushing the alien off him and mounting the it Jaune grabbed his combat knife and drove it down int othe alien's mouth and out of the back of it's neck, killing the alien with the fatal blow.

''Thanks.'' Jaune thanks, giving Jorge a thumbs up as the gatlin gun wielding Spartan kicked one of the alien's who'd attacked them.

''No problem, slippery bastards. I'm surprised you noticed them before they attacked, saved Cal's life.'' Jorge says, looking at Jaune as he stood himself up, brushing the blood off his knife before putting it back into it's sheath.

''I heard it's footstep behind me and took a look, the air was shimmering so I acted like there was enemies around us.'' Jaune explains, watching with a nod as the last alien was dispatched with no casualties on there side.

''Marines! You good?'' Jaune shouts, looking to the marines who's commanding officer nodded, sending them a thanks for the help.

''Alright people, let's move up, check to make sure no enemies ambush us again, you should be able to see them when they move, the air shimmers around them.'' Jaune says, explaining how to see the invisible aliens before he began to move towards Charlie base, the other Spartans and marines moving behind him and falling into a convoy line.

* * *

''This place is a mess...'' Jaune comments, looking over the remains of the base with the others.

When the arrived they were greeted with no resistance, not a single hostile in sight, they'd all left for a reason that Jaune wasn't going to be to picky about, they'd retaken the location and were currently looking for survivors while the marines kept a perimeter around the base secure with the help of Red team.

''Maybe the alien's realized you were coming and decided to leave before they had to see that ugly mug of yours?'' Jorge 'suggests' playfully getting a huff of laughter from Jaune and Cal.

''Yeah yeah, i'm sure they'd run in pure fear if I took my helmet off.'' Jaune says dramatically, playing along with Jorges banter as they searched the rubble.

Seeing there were no survivors in the base Jaune turned on his radio and spoke. ''Nothing here, anything on your side grey?''

'' **Nothing, not even bodies. They either left or the aliens took there bodies for some reason.''** Jai-006 replies, confused by the lack of bodies in the base. As much as they hated to admit it but there should at least be a few dead bodies from the attack, it was impossible for every marine to have escaped the base. Neither human nor covenant remains were present even though there were signs of battle everywhere. Bullet holes, plasma marks, explosion craters, destroyed human and alien vehicles, Blood. It was all there.

''Maybe they eat human's?'' Jorge suggested putting a rather graphic image in Jaune's head.

'' **Thanks for the image, Jorge.''** Both Jaune and Jai says aloud to Jorge who only whistles innocently, looking off to the side as if he'd done nothing.

'' **Sir! We have contacts approaching from the east, they're heading to the entrance of the base!''** One of the marines calls into the radio prompting Jaune to drop the shard of metal in his hand and make his way out of the base with Cal and Jorge following behind him. When they reached the courtyard they seen the marines garrisoning behind cover with Grey team, ready to fight the approaching aliens.

''Red team won't make it by the time the enemy reaches our location, we'll have to hold until they arrive with the rest of the marines guarding the perimeter.'' Jai shouts noticing Jaune's team moving into the cover and joining the defence force.

''You! With the long range radio! Call your Zeus and ask for some sort of re-enforcements! Hell tell them to drop a turret for all I care!'' Jaune orders, pointing at the Marine with the radio kit on his back getting him to start connecting to there Zeus.

''Any idea what we're against then?'' Jaune asks, looking at Jai who just shrugged.

''Didn't explain it, just said a big enemy force.'' Jai replies, reloading his B555 Heavy Barrel Surface Rifle and setting it's sights on the entrance, hearing the approaching alien force near the entrance.

''Tank!'' The sniper calls, looking down at the marines who ready themselves, two marines readying rocket lunchers to take out the heavy armour.

''Wait...don't open fire yet.'' Jaune says, holding up a hand preventing the marines from firing, even when the first tank entered the base, moving in and slowly approaching the group with a large force of ape like aliens being lead by a larger alien wielding a large hammer. When the second tank passed the gate Jaune lowered his arm suddenly, a hail of gun fire from the UNSC force following after.

Immediately the first tank was disabled, hit by two missiles knocking out the cockpit, several aliens were killed by small arms fire and a sniper shot. Unable to react in time to the gunfire, by the time the alien's shock wore-off the marines were ready to fire and began to fire again as the alien's made a break for cover, taking down two more.

''Get those rockets on the second tank!'' Jaune calls, prompting the marines the fire the second rocket at the tank, one striking the tank's right side knocking out it's floating capability causing it to drop down onto the ground letting the second missile hit the tank's cannon setting off a chain reaction blowing the rest of the tank up with it's own ammunition.

''Snipers pick them off in there cover, marines use grenades to draw them out!'' Jaune orders, pulling his own grenade, unpinning it and throwing it towards the alien's cover, several following after. The explosion of alien body parts and purple blood was magnificent.

''I'm surprised some of them didn't try to run.'' Jorge comments, mowing down an alien that had decided to try it's luck.

''I think those are the stupid ones.'' Jaune says, looking at an alien get out of cover and shoot a pistol sized weapon that sprayed out like a shotgun and had it's head blown off by a sniper shot from Cal. ''Yeah they aren't to smart...''

''Ones charging!'' A marine shouts, firing at the large alien rushing them with it's hammer, closing the distance at an impossibly high speed for it's size. Before he could get away the marine was hit by the hammer and knocked away like a rag-doll. The marines closest to the alien started to run, breaking cover to get away from the alien leaving them open to be hit in the back by the same hammer that'd taken his friends life.

''Focus fire on the big guy!'' Jaune shouts, aiming at the alien and firing his shotgun, grunting in annouance as the round hits the aliens shield, breaking it with a loud 'pop' but bouncing off the alien's armour harmlessly, only causing the Alien to stagger before it set it's sights on Jaune with a blood thirsty glare.

''I probably shouldn't have done that...'' Jaune says, receiving his answer in the form of being throw from his feet. Flipping several times in the air before landing awkwardly on his left arm by the glancing blow of the alien's hammer against his chest plate, tearing the lower half If it apart leaving jagged shards.

'Yep...Bad idea...'

Sitting himself up Jaune groaned, feeling his arm protesting to being moved but pushed on, pulling himself back to his feet before inspecting his armour, giving it a quick one over. Setting his eyes back on the hammer wielding alien Jaune's eyes widen seeing a hammer approaching his head, leaping to the side he avoids being crushed by is pushed away by the explosion of force send out by the attack.

'Right don't get hit by the hammer and you'll be good.'

Leaping to his feet Jaune grabs his pistol and aims at the alien who'd hefted his hammer from the ground and turned wards him. Firing several shots Jaune grunts as the alien's shield kicks in, blocking the first four before 'popping' letting the last three hit the alien's armour, only digging into it but not much else. Seeing the alien rushing with it's hammer raised Jaune disregards his pistol and ducks, allowing the hammer to glide over his back and slam into the ground near him. Feeling the explosive force rocking him Jaune grunts as he digs his feet into the ground to hold him in place.

Moving into action Jaune moves into the alien's guard and strikes the alien with an uppercut, following it up with a swift punch to the stunned Alien's face causing it to bend back slighty. Suddenly grinning the alien sends a blood thirsty grin Jaune's way causing him to hesitate allowing the alien to wrap a hand around his helmet and slam his head into the wall to there side and begin to drag him along it, cracking his visor and tearing the green paint from the right side of his helmet.

Jamming his feet into the ground Jaune brings them to a stop Jaune uses the moment of confusion to palm strike the alien in the face, denting the helmet inwards with a crunching sound. Feeling the hand around his helmet loosen he grabs the arm and tears it away from his head allowing him to spin on his heel and strike the Alien as it turned it's head back to face him, knocking a sharp tooth out with a glob of purple blood and spittle. As the alien stumbled backwards Jaune pulled his M5A assult rifle from his back and mag dumped the alien who quickly pulled it's arms in front of it' face.

Disgarding the empty gun to the side Jaune sprints towards the distracted alien, closing the distance in less than a second and performs a leg swipe, knocking the alien off it's feet with some resistance. Readying to lift his leg to cave in the alien's skull Jaune feels a hand wrapping around his ankle stopping his foot from coming down. Foot and hand struggled for dominance, both limbs shaking as the foot was slowly lowered closer to the alien's face.

Hearing heavy footsteps rapidly approaching Jaune looks up in time to see the ape like alien an inch from him, feeling the air being knocked out of his lungs Jaune gags as he's tackled by the second alien, pushing him into and through the wall he'd been dragged across previously. Without time to prepare Jaune lurches forwards, a fist driving into his gut threatening to make him vomit into his helmet.

Not letting it get the better of him Jaune rears a fist back and strikes the alien's face, striking it's jaw causing it to break from the force, without even time to scream in pain Jaune brings his hands up and wraps them around the alien's head and jerks it to the side violently, snapping the alien's neck and killing it, allowing Jaune to throw the alien off him with a groan.

Sitting himself up with a struggle Jaune looks at the spot the alien leader was and blinked seeing it still laying on the ground, not having moved from it's spot. It should have, it had enough strength left to slow his leg down enough to buy time for an underling to tackle him, so why hadn't it moved?

He got his answer in the form of a sniper bullet hitting the alien's body causing it lurch for a moment before going still again.

''Thanks Cal...'' Jaune says with a cough, sending a thumbs up to the sniper of there team who was situated on the nearby roof of the barracks. Trying to stand himself up Jaune suddenly falls onto his back, blotches of black entering his vision as his visor's flashing suddenly comes to his attention. Looking at the warning Jaune grimaces seeing that suit was saying he was fatality injured. His liver had ruptured.

'The damn alien destroyed my liver with that punch…' Was the last thing Jaune managed to say to himself before blacking out.

* * *

' _Can I really be a huntsman grandfather?'_

' _That depends? Do you want to?'_

' _Of course I do!'_

 _That voice...who did it belong to? I think I remember it..._

' _Then of course you can! To become a huntsman one only needs the drive to do so!'_

 _Grandfather…?_

' _So you'll train me?!'_

' _Well...I'm far to old for that. I'm sure if you asked your father he'd do it.'_

' _You're not that old, grandfather!'_

' _He is.'_

 _Another voice? Female...I recognise this one...It's my mothers from the dreams I have._

' _Bah, you're to hash Juniper.'_

' _Of course I am, I'm your daughter after all.'_

 _He tried to focus on her face, but all he could see was shadowed features and blond hair, she was tall, but that was all he could really make out…No he could see them, two emerald eyes filled with concern._

' _Jaune...please come back, we miss you.'_

 _I can't...they need me...humanity needs me. They need me to save them..._

' _Jaune...please...'_

' _We need you...'_

 _I'm sorry but..._

* * *

''I can't...''

''Looks like someone's finally awake.'' Jaune's eyes snapped open to find Li-008 looking down at him. The spartan's visor peering into his eyes, but he could tell behind the orange visor were eyes filled with concern for his well being.

''Li…?'' Jaune asks, groaning feeling his side hurting like a bitch getting him to look down to see he was wasn't in his armour, he was instead topless with a pair of loose tracksuits covering his lower body from view, but that wasn't what he was most concerned about at the moment, what he was most concerned about what the huge purple fist shaped indentation in his skin that was held closed by stitches.

''What happened?'' Jaune asks, looking at Li for an answer, the Spartan shook his head before answering..

''Your liver exploded. they replaced it with a flash clone but the damage was done to the skin and muscle before they could fix it, so congratulations Jaune, you have a scar that looks like a tattoo.'' Li explains before congratulating him, even going as far as to pat his shoulder.

''Hurts like hell.'' Jaune comments flatly at the congratulation getting a shrug from Li

''Think of it as punishment for fighting something almost double your height and mass.'' Li replies sassily before making his leave, leaving Jaune alone in the medical bay with the single nurse who was making herself busy with paper work, most likely nervous from being in the same room as an iron giant.

''Hey...'' Jaune calls, getting the nurse to turn and face him. ''How long was I out for?''

''You've been unconscious for the last three hours.'' The nurse explains getting Jaune to let out a low whistle, that long? Hopefully the others were doing better than him, and they probably were if Li hadn't brought it up so he didn't need to worry.

He signed as he dropped back into the medical bed, savouring how comfy it was compared to what he was used to, it was a little weird if he was honest, he had to shift himself a few times before finally he didn't feel weird in the bed as he lay down. How long would he be like this? His side still hurt whenever he moved, not as badly of course but it was still pretty bad.

''I wouldn't move around to much sir, you might open the stitches.'' The nurses voice brings him back to his senses, she was trying and failing to hold him down, apparently he'd been squirming to get comfortable while in thought. He'd have blushed from embarrassment if he remembered how to but it was a bit hard to do when you had drugs in your system that actively stopped that sort of thing.

Made him feel a little more man than machine than he'd like to have admit.

Suddenly brough from his thoughts by something shaking him rather violently Jaune's eyes cast onto the Nurse who'd fallen onto him, he opened his mouth to question what she was doing when suddenly the ship jerked again, throwing him off his bed with the Nurse on top of him who cried out of shock.

''That's not good.'' Jaune mummers, and is immediately answered when the cruisers boarding alarm turns on, alerting him and the many other members of staff on the ship that there was intruders.

''S-sir you can't fight in this condition!'' The nurse says as Jaune stands them up, his previous pain ignored as a serious looked was etched onto his face, he ignored her and her pleas, he had more important things to deal with now than some wound. He had to make sure the ship didn't fall into the enemies hands because if it did? They'd be dead.

''That's not an option.'' Jaune replies to the nurses concern as he walks out of the room to find many other confused marines and even a few ODST's looking around, peaking outside there medical wards to investigate what was going on just as he did.

''Is there an armoury in the medical ward?'' Jaune asks. He knew there was, all cruisers medical wards had them in the case a boarding did happen so the injured could defend themselves. He was just looking to know where it was.

The nurse nodded with a gulp, pointing to the end of the hallway leading Jaune's vision to the locked door system.

''Good.'' Jaune says before walking towards it, ignoring the Nurse trying to pull him back. He couldn't rest now, even with his injury making him limp he would be damned if he let the covenant take the bridge. If they took the bridge it would be all over, they would have the co-ordinates to major strong hold worlds such as reach. If they captured this ship it would mean they had access to earth and that couldn't happen, even if it meant blowing the ship up with him inside.

''All marines, ODST's and medical staff who can fight, take a weapon.'' Jaune calls as the alarm shuts off, opening the armoury with his ID card, the armoury was a standard one for the medical bay, dozens of M6A and M6B grade handguns. A single cabinet sit behind the sole desk in the room, four M7/Caseless sub-machine guns inside.

He stepped inside the armoury and walked to the cabinet, opening it up and took one of the submachine guns in hand, quickly reloading it in just over a second he turned back to the door to see a small crowd of marines and ODST's looking at him.

''We're going to take back this ship. If we fail the enemy will learn the location of Earth and they'll send everything they have to destroy it.'' Jaune explains while grabbing a second submachine gun and tossing it towards one of the ODST's who clumsily catches it.

''But we're all injured! How do you expect us to defend a medical cruiser? The only other armed forces on board are standard security forces!'' A marine shouts, looking at Jaune with fearful eyes.

''Because it's our job.'' Jaune replies calmly, walking up to the marine and showing a pistol into his hands.

''We're taking back this ship, even if it means we all die in the process. Is that clear?'' Jaune asks, looking at the unsure marines and ODST's who share looks of concern, unsure of what to do. Jaune was ready to just forget about them and do it on his own when suddenly one ODST pushes his way forwards and stops infront of Jaune with a determined look on his face. He saluted before speaking.

''Sargent James Allsup reporting to kick alien ass!'' The ODST identifies himself, looking into Jaune's blue eyes with his brown ones. Nodding Jaune moves to the said.

''Take a submachine gun.'' Jaune orders prompting the Sargent to walk past him and take the submachine gun and reload it, attaching the spare mag to his belt.

He looked back at the crowd who sharped a few looks before nodding collectivity, moving into the armoury and taking there weapons and some spare ammunition.

Thirty six, he had thirty six people armed mostly with civilians weapons to take back a ship from an advanced alien race with shields and weapons that could melt ship armour without much of a problem. The odds were against him but he was sure he'd be able to do it.

Because he had to.

''Alright boys! let's take us back a ship!''

'' **OORAH!''**

* * *

Sorry for the wait on the chapter, I was meant to post it on the 19th but in my infinite wisdom I accidentally overwrote the file with a blank document and deleted the 7k word chapter and I had to re-write it as best I could. Sadly this ones shorter but it'll have to do. So sorry if this seems rushed but I wrote it over a period of 4 days, in the future i'll probably re-write the chapter better but until then this is what you've got.

Until next time.


End file.
